Enhancing Initial Parental Engagement in Interventions for Parents of Young Children: A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies

Abstract

Low rates of participation in parenting interventions may undermine their effectiveness. Although a wide range of strategies to engage parents in interventions are described in the literature, little is known about which engagement strategies are most effective in enhancing parental engagement. This systematic review explores effective engagement strategies to encourage initial parental engagement (recruitment, enrolment, and first attendance) in parenting interventions for parents of children aged 2-8 years old. This review was conducted based on the guidelines of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (Higgins and Green 2011) and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Moher et al. 2009). Electronic systematic searches from January 1996 to August 2017 were conducted in PsycINFO, Scopus, ProQuest Social Sciences Journals, CINAHL, and PubMed databases. Eight studies met the inclusion criteria representing 1952 parents from four different countries. Of the engagement strategies tested in included studies (monetary incentive, setting, testimonial, advertisement, and engagement package), three strategies (advertisement, incentive, and engagement package) showed a significant effect on a stage of engagement, but none across stages. The low methodological quality of the selected studies limits their generalisability and thus provides limited evidence regarding effective engagement strategies to increase recruitment, enrolment, and first attendance rates in parenting interventions. There is a need for further, more methodologically rigorous, research evidence regarding how to engage parents more effectively in the early stages of parenting interventions.

Cultural Adaptation Process of the Strengthening Families Program (10–14) Around the World: an Integrative Review

“…The authors justified reducing the number of family meetings because it was impossible for the parents and guardians to attend seven meetings (Skärstrand et al 2008). Certainly, the engagement of parents is one of the greatest challenges in the implementation of family and parental preventive interventions worldwide (Gonzalez et al 2018). The disjunction between the SFP 10-14 format and the needs of the Swedish community represents a call to action for researches and others interested in the development of solutions that are adaptable to the needs of families in various contexts.…”

Intervening with Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up to decrease disrupted parenting behavior and attachment disorganization: The role of parental withdrawal

“…These findings highlight the importance of targeting parental withdrawal in high-risk families. Further, the ability to reduce parental withdrawal within 10 sessions is important given the difficulty of continued engagement of parents in parenting interventions, especially within high-risk populations, in community settings (Gonzalez, Morawska, & Haslam, 2018).…”

Una revisión sistemática de la participación en los programas de prevención familiar

“…Según Perrino y colaboradores (2001), estos obstáculos pueden incluir problemas o circunstancias logísticas dentro del entorno social de la familia que podrían interferir con la participación. Los obstáculos estructurales y logísticos, como limitaciones de tiempo y cronograma, altos costos y dificultad para asegurar y acceder a los servicios de transporte y cuidado infantil (Eisner & Meidert, 2011;Garvey et al, 2006;Gonzalez, Morawska, & Haslam, 2018;Ingoldsby, 2010;Morawska & Sanders, 2006;Ross & DeVoe, 2014;Spoth & Redmond, 2000), son factores clave que dificultan o impiden que los padres participen en programas familiares.…”

“…Otro problema común es que los servicios pueden hacer que los padres sientan que se cuestiona su crianza (Axford et al, 2012). Además, pueden surgir problemas relacionados con el estigma asociado a salud mental y los servicios sociales (Gonzalez et al, 2018;Ross & DeVoe, 2014).…”