The Impact of a Parenting Guidance Programme for Mothers with an Ethnic Minority Background

Abstract

The current mixed-method study investigates the effects of a culturally adapted version of the International Child Development Programme (ICDP) with 135 mothers -29 ethnic Pakistani mothers residing in Norway attending Urdu-language groups and a comparison group of 104Norwegian mothers attending Norwegian-language groups. All mothers completed questionnaires on parenting and psychosocial health before and after attending the ICDP programme. In depth interviews with a sub group of 12 ethnic Pakistani mothers and eight ethnic Norwegian mothers were analysed using thematic analysis. Before the ICDP programme, the Urdu-speaking mothers spent more time with the child, scored higher on distant child management, and reported poorer mental health. Most changes over time were similar but significant for the Norwegian-speaking group only, which might imply that the minority mothers were in the process of change. In the interviews, the Urdu-speaking mothers' emphasized enhanced communication and regulation, enhanced family relationships and life quality, whereas the Norwegian-speaking group told about increased consciousness and empowerment, and a more positive focus.

he First 1000 Days in the Nordic Countries: Psychosocial Interventions and Psychological Tests: A Review of the Evidence

“…The intervention has been evaluated in several pre-post designs (e.g. Clucas et al, 2014;Skar 2014a;Skar et al, 2014b) and some with a control group (e.g. Sherr et al, 2014;Skar et al, 2015) in Norway.…”

Effectiveness of the International Child Development Programme: Results from a randomized controlled trial

“…However, the effect sizes in the two above‐mentioned studies were small. ICDP seems to produce effects in diverse contexts with a variety of groups of parents, including mothers with ethnic minority background (Skar, von Tetzchner, et al, 2014a) and fathers in prison (Skar, von Tetzchner, et al, 2014b). The impact of ICDP has also been investigated in low‐ and middle‐income countries, reporting positive effects, including a reduction in parents' use of violence (Skar et al, 2017), improvement in caregiver skills, parental self‐efficacy and parental mental health, as well as in children's psychosocial functioning and development (Abarashi et al, 2014; Dybdahl, 2001; González‐Fernández et al, 2020; Skar, Sherr, et al, 2014).…”

“…However, the effect sizes in the two above-mentioned studies were small. ICDP seems to produce effects in diverse contexts with a variety of groups of parents, including mothers with ethnic minority background (Skar, von Tetzchner, et al, 2014a) and fathers in prison (Skar, von Tetzchner, et al, 2014b).…”