Engagement Strategies in Preventive Parenting Programs
Summary
Preventive parenting programmes aim to equip caregivers with skills to foster healthy child development and avert behavioural and mental health problems. Engagement strategies in these programmes address a multistage process—from initial outreach to the sustained enactment of learned strategies within the family context. Effective approaches include proactive connection efforts such as personalised invitations, culturally tailored materials and credible endorsements by trusted community figures. Attendance is promoted through flexible scheduling, provision of incentives or childcare and use of digital platforms to overcome geographic or temporal barriers. Participation quality is enhanced by skilled facilitation, interactive delivery modes and opportunities for parents to share experiences in supportive peer groups. Finally, enactment depends on follow-up support, booster sessions and digital reminders to encourage practice of new skills. The global significance of these strategies is reflected in adaptations for low-resource settings and diverse populations, highlighting the value of combining evidence-based theoretical models with practical implementation measures.
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Engagement Strategies in Preventive Parenting Programs publication trend
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Technical terms
Connect: Initial outreach stage where parents become aware of and are recruited into a programme.
Enactment: The implementation and maintenance of skills learned during the programme in the home environment.
Self-efficacy: A parent’s belief in their capacity to execute behaviours necessary to produce specific performance attainments.
Health Belief Model: A theoretical framework positing that health-related behaviour is influenced by perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits and barriers.
References
- Review: Systematic review and meta‐analysis – financial incentives increase engagement with parenting programs for disruptive behavior problems. Child and Adolescent Mental Health (2024).
- Mothers, Fathers, and Parental Systems: A Conceptual Model of Parental Engagement in Programmes for Child Mental Health—Connect, Attend, Participate, Enact (CAPE). Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review (2016).
- Parental engagement in preventive parenting programs for child mental health: a systematic review of predictors and strategies to increase engagement. PeerJ (2018).
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