ParentApp for the Early Years in Tanzania Updates October – November 2022
Reporting by Stefani Du Toit The project is beginning to get underway, with the ethics application now having been submitted to the Health Research Ethics Committee (Stellenbosch University) for ethical approval. An in-person meeting was conducted in Tanzania with country PIs and partners to discuss the study on 13 September, and we have been in consultation with Prof G.J Melendez Torress on study measures, study design, and randomization.
ParentApp for the Early Years in Tanzania Updates
This multi-phase study aims to develop ParentApp for Kids (ParentApp for the Early Years) and assess its feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness on responsive caregiving and child development. This study will benefit parents and caregivers and their children falling between pregnancy and 9 years of age.
Parenting for Lifelong Health for Young Children | ACAMH
GPI lead Professor Cathy Ward talks to the ACAMH about winning the Association for Child & Adolescent Mental Health JCCP Best Paper Award 2021, evidence-based approaches to reduce the likelihood of children becoming aggressive, preventing child maltreatment, and understanding the epidemiology of risk factors faced by South African children, as well as the work The Global Parenting Initiative is doing in this area. Listen to the Podcast
Parenting for Lifelong Health: a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of a non-commercialised parenting programme for adolescents and their families in South Africa
Cluver, L. D., Meinck, F., Steinert, J. I., Shenderovich, Y., Doubt, J., Herrero Romero, R., Lombard, C. J., Redfern, A., Ward, C. L., Tsoanyane, S., Nzima, D., Sibanda, N., Wittesaele, C., De Stone, S., Boyes, M. E., Catanho, R., Lachman, J. M., Salah, N., Nocuza, M., & Gardner, F. Objective To assess the impact of ‘Parenting for Lifelong Health: Sinovuyo Teen’, a parenting programme for adolescents in low-income and middle-income countries, on abuse and parenting practices. Design Pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting: 40 villages/urban sites (clusters) in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Participants: 552 families reporting conflict with their adolescents (aged 10–18). Intervention Intervention clusters (n=20) received a 14-session parent and adolescent programme delivered by trained community members. Control clusters (n=20) received a hygiene and hand-washing promotion programme. Main outcome measures Primary outcomes: abuse and parenting practices at 1 and 5–9 months postintervention. Secondary outcomes: caregiver and adolescent mental health and substance use, adolescent behavioural problems, social support, exposure to community violence and family financial well-being at 5–9 months postintervention. Blinding was not possible. Results At 5–9 months postintervention, the intervention was associated with lower abuse (caregiver report incidence rate ratio (IRR) 0.55 (95% CI 0.40 to 0.75, P<0.001); corporal punishment (caregiver report IRR=0.55 (95% CI 0.37 to 0.83, P=0.004)); improved positive parenting (caregiver report d=0.25 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.47, P=0.024)), involved parenting (caregiver report d=0.86 (95% CI 0.64 to 1.08, P<0.001); adolescent report d=0.28 (95% CI 0.08 to 0.48, P=0.006)) and less poor supervision (caregiver report d=−0.50 (95% CI −0.70 to −0.29, P<0.001); adolescent report d=−0.34 (95% CI −0.55 to −0.12, P=0.002)), but not decreased neglect (caregiver report IRR 0.31 (95% CI 0.09 to 1.08, P=0.066); adolescent report IRR 1.46 (95% CI 0.75 to 2.85, P=0.264)), inconsistent discipline (caregiver report d=−0.14 (95% CI −0.36 to 0.09, P=0.229); adolescent report d=0.03 (95% CI −0.20 to 0.26, P=0.804)), or adolescent report of abuse IRR=0.90 (95% CI 0.66 to 1.24, P=0.508) and corporal punishment IRR=1.05 (95% CI 0.70 to 1.57, P=0.819). Secondary outcomes showed reductions in caregiver corporal punishment endorsement, mental health problems, parenting stress, substance use and increased social support (all caregiver report). Intervention adolescents reported no differences in mental health, behaviour or community violence, but had lower substance use (all adolescent report). Intervention families had improved economic welfare, financial management and more violence avoidance planning (in caregiver and adolescent report). No adverse effects were detected. Conclusions This parenting programme shows promise for reducing violence, improving parenting and family functioning in low-resource settings. Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000539
Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) Updates
Endorsed by the UN, Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) is a globally recognised, cutting-edge charitable social enterprise committed to providing evidence-based, playful parenting support for everyone, everywhere. Operating since 2012 and legally registered as a charity in 2022, the aim of PLH is to improve child development and prevent family violence through the sustainable scale-up of tailored human-digital, open source, evidence-based parenting solutions within government, NGO, and private sector systems in the Global South and beyond.
Parenting for Lifelong Health
Endorsed by the UN, Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) is a globally recognised, cutting-edge charitable social enterprise committed to providing evidence-based, playful parenting support for everyone, everywhere. Operating since 2012 and legally registered as a charity in 2022, the aim of PLH is to improve child development and prevent family violence through the sustainable scale-up of tailored human-digital, open source, evidence-based parenting solutions within government, NGO, and private sector systems in the Global South and beyond. Our Story Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) is a UK-based charitable social enterprise committed to developing evidence-based, open-source playful parenting solutions and bringing the capacity to operationalise a global scale-up of services for the most vulnerable. PLH was founded as an initiative in 2012 with UNICEF and the WHO to develop, test, and share a suite of freely-available, non-commercialised, and low-cost parenting programmes to reduce violence against children and improve child wellbeing in low- and middle-income countries. These programmes have been rigorously tested and implemented in 35 low- and middle-income countries for approximately 300,000 beneficiaries. Responding to the impact of COVID-19, the PLH resources were adapted in collaboration into open-source resources to promote playful, nurturing caregiving and to prevent violence against children.12 These materials reached an estimated 210.5 million parents in 192 countries and territories by December 2021. PLH became a UK-registered charity in 2022 to respond to the growing need for scalable and sustainable parenting support to address multiple child and family adversities. Key organisational considerations include further developing its digital/hybrid product offerings, strengthening its existing relationships with core partners, including UNICEF, USAID, and WHO, and maintaining its commitment to open source, evidence-based, affordable parenting support as the organisation grows. Our Approach Linked to this aim are five core objectives: Organisational Development: Create an agile and inclusive organisational infrastructure with a strong presence in the Global South that has the capacity and expertise to build on its success of the past 10 years scaling playful parenting solutions in the Global South Accelerating Impact: Expand the reach and impact of playful parenting solutions within government, NGO, and private sector systems in the Global South by building local infrastructure, training frontline service providers, and providing technological assistance to enable scale-up and institutionalisation Ecosystem-Building: Facilitate collaboration among international, regional, national, and local stakeholders, including building the capacity and sustainability of systems-building partners and implementing agencies Humanitarian Parenting Support: Build a first responder delivery model to provide playful parenting and child protection support during humanitarian emergencies and crisis situations Sustainability and Growth: Increase organisational sustainability and resilience by diversifying revenue streams across philanthropic donations, institutional partnerships, and earned income models.
