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New Report Demonstrates Benefits of Online Parents Plus Programmes Delivered via Parentline
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New Report Demonstrates Benefits of Online Parents Plus Programmes Delivered via Parentline

Since autumn 2021, Parentline and Parents Plus have had a very successful collaboration in the delivery of online Parents Plus programmes. The project began during COVID as a response to the high volume of parents reaching out to Parentline for support for themselves, and their children struggling with mental health challenges, including anxiety and depression, behavioural challenges, additional needs and a range of other stressful issues affecting them, including separation and divorce.

The programmes are delivered to parents by Accredited Parents Plus Facilitators, using the solution-focused practice model, with 12 – 14 parents in each group, over six 2 – 2.5 hour sessions. An initial examination of the impact of the online programmes conducted in 2021 showed a range of positive outcomes for the families attending.

The parents valued connecting with and sharing with each other, as well as getting and giving advice and support. The other highlights in terms of participant feedback were the helpfulness of the strategies they learnt during the programmes, such as parent self-regulation and the idea of co-regulating with their child, using the ‘pause button’, the power of encouragement, the positive communication techniques when engaging with their children, and parent self-care. With funding from the Community Foundation of Ireland via the RTE Toy Show Appeal, the project was able to scale up delivery of online Parents Plus programmes with further partners Parentline, ADHD Ireland and Family Carers Ireland, the Limerick Northside Family Resource Centre and the Mid-West Family Resource Centre Network.

Now, we are pleased to launch a new report outlining the findings of a brief evaluation of the online delivery of Parents Plus evidence-based group programmes as part our ongoing collaboration with Parentline. A sample of 134 parents of children aged 0-17 attending programmes between January 2022 and December 2023 participated in this evaluation of programme impact.

The report begins by providing some background details, context, and rationale. It then presents the results of the study’s qualitative analysis, followed by thematic qualitative feedback from parents, and finally discusses the findings. It concludes by highlighting implications for clinical practice in online parent group delivery and recommendations for further research.

Parents participated in one of four of the Parents Plus programmes:

  • Parents Plus Early Years (PPEY)
  • Parents Plus Children’s Programme (PPCP)
  • Parents Plus Adolescents Programme (PPAP)
  • Parents Plus Parenting When Separated (PP-PWS)

All participants in the study consented to data collection using a set of standardised measures before beginning the programme, on completion of the programme and at follow-up, six months after completion of the programme.

Feedback on the courses was overwhelmingly positive, with parents reporting many benefits and improvements in family life and relationships. This came in the form of spending more positive one-to-one time together, having better routines, improving behaviour, and overall calmer households with improved family problem-solving and de-escalation of highly expressed emotions.

“I made a conscious effort to spend 1:1 time with my children, especially my oldest. Looking back I think he was craving my attention but in the wrong ways. Tuning into his feelings and emotions instead of flying off the handle helped us both”.

The report also highlights the benefits of the online format, the need for accessible parent support programmes and the gaps in available services for families needing this type of support. The next phase in this research will be to compare the outcomes of the online groups with their in-person equivalents.

“For busy parents, it helped as there wasn’t any issue with organising childcare, and commuting. Was easy to allocate the time without the travel costs, etc”.

An important feature of the research findings presented in this report is that many of the families had complex difficulties that fell within the clinical range in The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997). The comparison between those in the normal range and clinical range showed that the online programmes are an effective option for those with complex needs.

Overall, the report concludes that the delivery of the online Parents Plus programmes in collaboration with Parentline has been highly successful and offers a strong rationale in terms of accessibility and impact for online parent programme provision.

For more information on the research methods used and outcomes of the evaluation, you can read the report in full here.

You’ll find more information on upcoming online programmes for parents here.