National Study of an Early Parenting Intervention: Implementation Differences on Parent and Child Outcomes

Abstract

Sing & Grow is a 10-week group music therapy intervention to promote positive parenting and child development for marginalized parents of birth to 3-year-old children. This paper examined whether changes from pre to post intervention varied according to implementation site, when the intervention was taken to scale nationally. Outcomes for 850 participants were compared for the site where the program was first established against three new locations; one site where implementation processes were more favorable relative to the other two sites. Overall, the findings provided only limited support for differential outcomes by site of implementation. Participants showed significant improvements in parent-reported parenting and child outcomes from pre to post that were similar across all sites. For clinician-reported outcomes, improvements over time were generally greater in the original site and the well-supported site compared to the sites where there were more implementation difficulties. These differences were partly accounted for by differences in the characteristics of participants receiving programs in different sites and differences in the clinicians' ratings of program quality and the levels of support and training provided. However, confounding by the source of measurement requires cautious interpretation of clinician data. This study further highlights the potential for music therapy as an early parenting intervention, and the need for more rigorous evaluations in this field.

Associations between early shared music activities in the home and later child outcomes: Findings from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

“…No other large-sample longitudinal study has investigated these associations in early childhood for the general population. The findings align with those that document relations between parentchild music therapy and improved social skills in early childhood for specialized populations (Nicholson et al, 2010 andWilliams et al, 2012), and those that link group music-making with improved empathy and prosociality in early (Kirschner & Tomasello, 2010), and middle childhood (Rabinowitch, Cross, & Burnard, 2012). Early parent-child music activities such as singing (including action songs), dancing, and playing instruments might provide an important opportunity for children to practice imitation, shared intentionality, social interaction, cooperation, and mutual responsivity with a trusted caregiver (Pasiali, 2012 andRabinowitch et al, 2012).…”

“…Parent-child music therapy efficacy studies indicate that joint active music participation is associated with improved parent-child interactions and enhanced impulse control or self-regulation skills (Pasiali, 2012), and social and communication skills for children (Mackenzie and Hamlett, 2005, Nicholson et al, 2008,Nicholson et al, 2010, Walworth, 2009and Williams et al, 2012. These correlational studies have largely been with small numbers of participants and with specialized populations deemed to require additional parenting and child development support.…”

Effects of a Dyadic Music Therapy Intervention on Parent-Child Interaction, Parent Stress, and Parent-Child Relationship in Families with Emotionally Neglected Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Sing & Grow is an Australian program in which children under 5 years of age and their parents participate in group musical activities. Several researchers investigating the effect of Sing & Grow, have found significantly improved parentchild interaction through improved parental satisfaction, parenting skills, and the overall development of the child especially in social skills (Abad, Berthelsen, Bradley, Nicholson, & Williams, 2008;Abad & Williams, 2007;Nicholson, Berthelsen, Williams, & Abad, 2010;Williams, Berthelsen, Nicholson, Walker, & Abad, 2012).…”

Literature Review of Early Childhood Music Therapy Between 1990-2012

“…The program was funded for 2 years initially and then the funding was extended. In the findings of this review five Sing&Grow research papers were included (Abad, 2007;Abad & Williams, 2006;Nicholson et al, 2010;Nicholson et al, 2008;Williams et al, 2012) and one clinical evaluative paper (Williams & Abad, 2005). These have affected especially the analysis results of research articles.…”

“…This could be partly because the texts did not articulate details like this clearly enough. Also, music therapy programs or group work (Aldridge, 1993;Edwards et al, 2007;Nicholson et al, 2010), which might be well structured and planned in advance seemed not to use improvisation as much as other kinds of approaches. In addition, strict research design might have limited the use of different methods (i.e.…”