Impacting Parenting Skill and Child Development: An Evaluation of the Triple P Parenting Program

Background and Purpose: Parenting is a fulfilling yet challenging endeavor. The Triple P (TP) Parenting program teaches prospective and current parents parenting skills to support them in providing a nurturing environment for their children's development. During 2021-2024, we have implemented TP with almost 178 parents/caregivers of youth aged 11-16 residing in an urban and rural county in central NC. Given the lack of qualitative research on parenting interventions in general and TP specifically, this exploratory, qualitative study examines parent’s perspectives of how the TP parenting program impacts parenting skills and knowledge.

Methods: Using qualitative thematic analysis, we analyzed data from phone interviews conducted with seven former TP group participants. The sample comprised of mothers with at least one child between the ages of 11 and 16. These interviews lasted 10-15 minutes and assessed participants' perspectives of the TP program’s material, structure, and comprehensiveness, as well as observed changes in child behavior and the program's impact on parenting styles and the parent-child relationship. The collected data from the interviews was transcribed verbatim and themes were created based on the participants’ responses. Participant quotes were coded and analyzed based on these themes.

Results: Overall, the TP program received positive feedback from participants, and they cited several reasons why they would recommend the program to other parents. For example, participants highlighted that TP encouraged self-reflection, facilitated connections with other parents by sharing experiences, and provided valuable and relevant parenting skills. Participants reported feeling part of TP groups and this community-based learning fostered positive changes in parenting skills, including heightened situational awareness of children's behavior, adoption of self-reflection techniques and self-care strategies, and improved parent-child communication, which increased involvement of children in parenting conversations. Participants noted the TP program improved communication with their children by teaching them to engage in transparent and reflective conversations which facilitated collaborative dialogues and promoted healthy relationships. The TP program received constructive feedback on the program's material, noting that updating the material (e.g., modernizing the example videos) would improve its learning capacity. To enhance the learning experience the participants suggested changes to the program's structure and delivery, such as longer classes, additional sessions, and incentives for completing take-home work.

Conclusions and Implications: The feedback from participants suggests that the TP program is a valuable resource for parents seeking to improve their parenting skills and build supportive learning communities. Analyzing feedback provided by participants of parenting interventions, such as TP, can play a crucial role in the evolution of parenting interventions. This enables parenting programs to keep pace with the continually changing climates of childhood behavior and parenting aptitudes. This approach can ensure that parenting interventions remain effective in addressing the educational needs of new and continuing parents.