The parenting within the Public Health System project aims to examine and support the scale-up of Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) within Thailand’s public health system.
Over 2022-2025, the team focussed on three main strands of work: (1) embedding the in-person PLH for Young Children (PLH-YC) group programme within routine health services in Northern and Northeastern Thailand; (2) testing an adapted ParentChat blended playful parenting programme delivered by nurses in Udon Thani; and (3) developing digital and data systems, including the ChildShield platform, to link PLH monitoring with the national health information system and UNICEF’s Primero case management system.
Since 2017, the University of Oxford, UNICEF, and MOPH have worked in partnership to adapt, test, and implement PLH Young Children in Thailand.
A randomised trial (N=120) demonstrated effectiveness in reducing child maltreatment by 58%, parent mental health problems by 40%, and child behaviour problems by 60% compared to a control of services-as-usual at three-months follow-up. Given these results, the partners have initiated a second phase of implementation, including the training of new cohorts of facilitators, coaches, and trainers; integrating programme delivery, monitoring, and evaluation into the government health services database system; promoting digital parenting delivery; and engaging in policy advocacy.
Baseline data collection, two interim assessments, post-test data collection, and qualitative data collection with facilitators and parent participants are complete for the RCT of ParentChat. A cluster RCT, led by Wilaiwan Pongpaew (PhD candidate and Playful Parenting Scholar, Chulalongkorn University) examines the effectiveness and feasibility of a hybrid playful parenting intervention – ParentChat – in Udon Thani. A total of 240 parents of 2- to 17-year-olds living in Udon Thani province were enrolled, with 218 assessed at post-test. Qualitative data collection consisted of 12 in-depth interviews with parents and one focus group discussion with five ParentChat facilitators to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of ParentChat content. Programme delivery to six ParentChat groups also proceeded well.
With approximately 75% attendance rates across groups. Analyses were completed and published in 2025 in several journals, including The Lancet Regional Health – South Asia, Child: Care, Health, and Development, as well as Research on Social Work Practice.
This study examined the costing of delivery of PLH-YC within the government public health system according to four scaling scenarios and the benefit to cost ratio of delivering the programme.
Depending on the scenario for scaling up PLH-YC within the public health service system (according to unit of scale, district-wide, province-wide, or national level delivery), the provision of the programme is estimated to cost approximately $82-300 per caregiver. Findings also highlight the benefit to cost ratio of PLH-YC falls between 6.1 and 117.7 Thai Baht, suggesting that the programme’s benefits were 6.1 to 117.7 times higher than its costs.
The manuscript with the study findings was published in the Research on Social Work Practice. A further manuscript on the cost benefit analysis of the PLH-YC programme in Thailand is currently being prepared and will be submitted in early 2026.
This intervention has the potential to reach all parents everywhere. It will also provide insights into how the ParentText programme can be implemented sustainably and at scale, and whether the Child Safety module is effective at reducing the risk of sexual violence in South African communities. The results of our study will have applicability far beyond South Africa and PLH: they will provide guidance to all other service systems that offer low-cost digital programmes with in-built referral triggers and pathways.
This study examined the social value of PLH-YC in Thailand through consultations with caregivers and programme facilitators.
Caregivers who were interviewed for the study and who had participated in the PLH-YC programme attributed approximately 77.8% of their life changes to the intervention, likely influenced by their rural residence with limited access to parenting education programmes. In addition, the most significant social value of the programme was observed in improving child monitoring and supervision (66%), followed by increased positive parenting skills (10%), reduced child behaviour problems (8%), and reduction in child emotional abuse (7%).
This qualitative study explored parenting programme content of potential interest to male caregivers, including childcare, education, development, play, academic achievement, child monitoring, and discipline.
Findings highlighted several areas that point to greater inclusion of male caregivers in parenting programmes. These included the relevance of targeted recruitment approaches to reach male caregivers when advertising participation in a programme, a need for flexible scheduling based on localised working patterns, creating opportunities for male only spaces and dialogue and consideration of the approach and attitudes of service providers to ensure spaces are safe and welcoming.
Dr Amalee McCoy (Co-Principal Investigator, PCF) presented the study findings and shared experience on scaling interventions in a presentation at the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) 2025 Conference in Vilnius. A draft paper is also in the process of development and submission.
Peace Culture Foundation (PCF) has played a central role in national coordination structures, including Strategic and Technical Alliance Team (STAT) Working Group and the Parenting Education Working Group, which guide Thailand’s move towards a positive parenting policy and a dedicated Positive Parenting Promotion Centre within MOPH. 2024 marked the final year of Thai-based PCF participation in the core GPI. Following a one-year extension, the project team’s activities concluded in the final quarter of 2025, along with the support from partner World Childhood Foundation.
Cultural adaptation of parenting interventions: Formative evaluation in Thailand
In collaboration with PLH, PCF developed a series of video vignettes to demonstrate examples of positive, playful parenting.
16 short video vignettes (playlist below), each approximately 1-3 minutes in length, depict the application of various PLH parenting skills which can form the basis of parent group discussions, in addition to scenarios and challenges that parents of children aged 2-17 years in Thailand may face in their day-to-day lives. The video vignettes have also been incorporated in place of comic stories within the adapted ParentChat programme delivered to low-income parents in Udon Thani.
The Thai National Community of Practice on Positive Parenting was launched in September 2022 with the aim of establishing a growing community of dedicated individuals and organizations focused on advocacy, the exchange of knowledge, the generation of ideas, and strategic collaboration on evidence-informed and evidence-based positive parenting in Thailand.
Core activities include bi-monthly webinars featuring policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in the parenting field; quarterly newsletters; and a website for sharing both Thai and international resources at their website.
The organizing committee for the community is led by the Peace Culture Foundation and the National Institute of Child and Family Development at Mahidol University.
