Parent Support Programmes for Families Who are Immigrants: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Parental support is of paramount importance in the promotion of positive parenting, strengthening parenthood and protecting children from disadvantages due to immigration experiences. The aim was to describe what is known about parent support programmes targeted to families who are immigrants. Electronic databases and the grey literature were systematically and comprehensively searched with no time/language restrictions. JBI approach and PRISMA-ScR were used to guide the review. N = 88 articles were sourced. Interventions were targeted to improve parental practices, skills and family wellbeing, usually through group-based methods. Most interventions included components of positive parenting and family communication. Identifying the needs of the target group and cultural tailoring were reported to be highly important in gaining acceptability, promoting engagement and producing benefits. Parent support programmes for families who are immigrants potentially improve positive parental practices and families’ wellbeing. There are many applicable and effective interventions to be exploited.

Development and evaluation of a tailored mHealth parenting program for multicultural families: a three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial

“…In the analysis stage of the ADDIE model, the participant and the environment surrounding the participant were thoroughly analyzed to deliver tailored health information to the target population. Looking at the existing parent support program for immigrants, it was found that most studies considered tailoring programs for cultural adaptation ( 31 ). However, by analyzing the participants and their surrounding environment, we found that there were difficulties in language, family conflicts, and application of information when parenting children.…”

Attachment and trauma-informed programme to support forcibly displaced parents of youth in Sweden: feasibility and preliminary outcomes of theeConnect Onlineprogramme

“…Yet, forcibly displaced parents often experience exceptionally poor access to healthcare services, due to limited awareness of service availability, perceived stigma around mental health problems and fear of judgement, discrimination or child removal by service providers 18. Service access is further complicated for these families by the limited availability of culturally aligned services delivered in their native languages 19…”

“It opened a new door for me”: A qualitative study of forcibly displaced parents’ experiences of an attachment-based parenting program

“…Emerging research shows that parenting interventions that focus on improving the parent-child relationship may be a particularly promising approach for supporting forcibly displaced families ( Hamari et al, 2022 ). While some parenting programs that are culturally and contextually relevant to families exist, they are exceptionally scarce, despite the historically high rates of forcibly displaced people worldwide ( UNCHR, 2022 ).…”