The Webster-Stratton Incredible Years Basic Parenting Programme: Parental Satisfaction in a Community Group of Portuguese Parents

Abstract

Background. The Incredible Years Basic Parent Training Program is an evidence-based intervention, recommended by the American Psychological Association Task Force as meeting the criteria for empirically supported mental health intervention for children with conduct problems. This Program is being used in several countries, like the UK, Ireland, Norway, Germany, Netherlands and New Zealand.

Purpose. This paper reports the preliminary results - concerning parental satisfaction - of the first group of parents that has been run in Portugal, using The Incredible Years Basic Parent Training Program.

Previously to the implementation of the Program with at risk and clinical samples, it was our aim to test its validity in a low-risk group, composed by 12 parents of preschool non-referred children (case-study). The group was run weekly in a preschool setting, at the end of the day.

The Incredible Years Basic Parent Training Program is delivered through 12 sessions, in which issues like play, praise, effective limit setting, and handling misbehaviour are addressed. The main goals of the program are: to strengthen parent-child relationships and encourage child cooperation; to increase parents' nurturing and positive parenting skills; to encourage effective limit setting and definition of clear household rules; and to promote the use of non-violent discipline strategies.

At the end of each session, parents were asked to fill in a questionnaire concerning their level of satisfaction with regard to each of the program's components: content, DVDs, role-play, group leaders and group discussion. The parents' attendance rate was also studied and taken as an index of parental satisfaction concerning the program. Finally, in the last session parents filled in a longer questionnaire, aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the program, the teaching format, the specific parenting techniques, the therapists and the overall program.

Key findings and recommendations. Our main findings, concerning the use of the Incredible Years Parenting Program, and particularly in what parental satisfaction is concerned, are: very good rates of parental satisfaction - parents classified most of the program's components in most of the sessions as "useful" or " very useful"; high rates of parents' attendance (minimum 10 out of 12); in drop-outs; parents considered the program overall useful and not difficult to follow; high levels of parental motivation and enthusiasm, although those parents had no specific concerns regarding their children's behavior.

It was also realized through the running of the program that each parent chose to use preferentially one or two strategies as a function of the child's or his/her own characteristics; there was very good support from the nursery school; good conditions were provided to families; Those conditions might be difficult to replicate in other situations (clinical, low-income, high-risk families; support from the school...).

Based on these results (parents' satisfaction) and also on the results concerning parenting practices and children's outcomes (analyzed elsewhere), we consider that there is empirical evidence supporting the utility and validity of the Incredible Years Basic Parenting Program also with Portuguese preschool children. Along with the extensive research published about this program, our data strongly allow for the recommendation of its use in the prevention and remediation of behavior problems in preschool children in Portugal.