Parenting Programme Preferences and Effectiveness of the Group Triple P Program with Chinese Immigrant Parents of Primary School Age Children

Abstract

China is one of the largest sources of immigrants to New Zealand. Chinese immigrant parents face various parenting challenges when they move to a new country and parenting programmes may help by providing parenting strategies to manage some of these challenges. However, no research has investigated the parenting support needs and effectiveness of the Triple P Parenting Program with Chinese immigrant parents. This thesis addressed these research gaps with three separate studies. The first study surveyed 159 Chinese immigrant parents with a 5-to-12-year-old child, living in New Zealand, about their parenting practices, family relationships, their child’s behaviour patterns, and their parenting programme preferences. Parents were asked to rate their preferred parenting programme content, programme features and delivery preferences, and barriers to participation. Parents in the sample reported low levels of child behaviour problems, dysfunctional parenting practices, family adjustment problems, and a high level of parenting confidence. The topics rated most highly by parents to include in a programme were teaching children to cope with failure and with negative emotions, and increasing children’s confidence and social and time management skills. Parents’ most preferred programme delivery methods were group-based programmes, parent seminars, and individually tailored programmes. The most frequently mentioned barriers to parenting programme participation were lack of awareness about available programmes, time constraints, inconvenient location of services, and lack of childcare. The second study explored Triple P practitioners’ views on the parenting challenges and parenting support needs of Chinese immigrant parents. Structured interviews were conducted with eight Chinese Triple P practitioners living in Auckland. Five major topics emerged from the interviews, including parent concerns about child behaviour at home; parent concerns about school related issues; challenges related to parent-child communication and acculturation difficulties; suggestions for delivering the Triple P Program to Chinese immigrant parents; and barriers to programme participation. According to practitioners some of these parenting concerns arose from Chinese cultural expectations about child behaviour, childrearing conflict between parents and grandparents, and English language barriers. In study 3, a randomised controlled trial (RCT) was conducted to examine the effectiveness of the Group Triple P Parenting Program in a sample of Chinese immigrant parents living in Auckland, New Zealand. Participants were 67 Chinese immigrant parents of a 5 to 9-year-old child, with elevated levels of disruptive behaviour problems. Parents were randomly allocated to either an intervention or a waitlist group. Parent-report measures of child adjustment problems, general parenting practices, parenting practices in children’s academic lives, parental adjustment, parental teamwork, and family relationships were collected at three-time points (pre-, post-, and 4-month follow-up). Ratings of programme satisfaction were collected from the intervention group, following programme completion. Significant short-term intervention effects were found for improvements in child adjustment problems, parenting practices, and parental teamwork, and parenting in the child academic context. For parental adjustment, although statistically not significant, a medium effect size was found. All intervention effects, except for parental teamwork, were maintained at 4-month follow-up. Parents reported a high level of satisfaction with the programme. The findings from the first two studies could be used to inform the content and delivery of parenting programmes directed at Chinese immigrant families, which may help to meet their specific parenting support needs. Study 3 was the first RCT to examine the effectiveness of the Group Triple P Program with Chinese immigrant parents living in New Zealand. Findings contribute to the evidence base for the effectiveness of the Group Triple P Program.