Poster #69 - Effectiveness of Mixed-Mode Parenting Program during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Quasi-experiment Study in Hong Kong

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

Parenting training programs have been widely accepted as an evidence-based strategy for improving positive parenting skills and reducing harsh and abusive parenting in the past decade (Knerr, Gardner & Cluver, 2013; Li et al., 2013). Depart from the traditional onsite training, researchers found that online parenting programs had the strongest effects on increasing positive parenting and parental encouragement, followed by reducing negative parent-child interactions, child problem behaviors, parent stress, child anxiety, and parent depression (Spencer et al., 2020). However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated lockdowns have forced some societies to deliver the parenting program in a mixed mode: some lessons onsite and some online. Whether this kind of mixed-mode parenting program is still effective and what kinds of effect it has are the two critical questions to be addressed. In particular, this study aims to examine the effectiveness of a mixed-mode parenting program during the COVID-19 lockdowns with a group of Chinese parents in Hong Kong.
Altogether 139 parents of preschoolers (ages 3-6) participated in this study and completed the survey on Family Emotional Expressiveness (FEE), Child Behavior (CB), Authoritative & Responsive & Negative Parenting (ARNP) across three time points during the lockdowns (Table 1). They were randomly assigned to the intervention ( N1= 69) and control groups (N2 = 70). The intervention was a 3-month mixed-mode parental training program, including 12 sessions conducted onsite and/or online (videos followed by phone calls and homework assignments). The control group did not receive any parental training during the same period.
The variables, including sub-dimensions of the FEE, CB and ARNP were examined in this analysis. The two-way ANOVA results (Table 2) indicated that: (1) there was a significant main effect of Time [F (1.892, 187.300) = 4.691, p = .012, ηp2 = .045] on parents ARNP-physical coercion scores and also a significant interaction effect between Time and Group [F (1.892, 187.300) = 3.292, p = .042, ηp2 = .032]; (2) there was a significant main effect of time [F (2, 198) = 3.678, p = .027, ηp2 = .036] on parents’ ARNP-verbal hostility scores, but no significant Time*Group interaction effect; (3) there was no significant main effect on Time [F (2, 196) = 1.029, p = .359, ηp2 = .010] in parents’ score on FEE-negative submissiveness, but there was a significant interaction effect between time and group, F (2, 196) = 5.593, p = .004, ηp2 = .054.
These results further provided empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of a mixed-mode parental training program in reducing negative parenting, including the negative submissive emotional expressions at home, physical coercion, and verbal hostility in interacting with preschool children at home. Most importantly, this study highlights the significance and necessity of establishing a culturally appropriate training program to reduce negative parenting practices for young children's parents in Hong Kong. Future studies need to find creative ways to provide a culturally acceptable way for Chinese parents, preventing them from problematic beliefs and negative parenting practices.

Authors

• Eva Y.H. Lau, The Education University of Hong Kong
  Presenting Author

• Thomas G Power

• Dandan Wu, The Education University of Hong Kong