The Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) for Young Children (YC) programme is an evidence-informed, low-cost intervention designed to be delivered in low income, low resource settings.
In 2010, Montenegro was awarded European Union candidacy status which has led to an intensive series of reforms, including the prohibiting of violent punishment of children. In 2017, a national campaign to protect children from adverse childhood experiences was launched. Part of this was the introduction of support for parents via the PLH-YC programme.
With the support of UNICEF Montenegro, the first training for facilitators took place in Autumn 2017 followed by the delivery of 46 parent groups. An evaluation of these groups showed promising reductions in child maltreatment and dysfunctional parenting practices as well as improvements in positive parenting practices and depressive symptoms.
Following this pilot study, the Parliament of Montenegro recommended scaling up the programme across the country. More facilitator trainings and parent groups followed as well as the training of in-house coaches and trainers. The facilitator and coach trainings were accredited by the National Institute for Social and Child Protection, the programme was accredited by the Bureau of Education, and the programme was included as part of the Ministry for Education Strategy for Early and Preschool Education. By Autumn 2023, 97 facilitators have been trained from 30 different agencies in 12 municipalities across Montenegro. Over 1200 parents have received certificates of programme completion.
We continue to work with colleagues in Montenegro to expand the programme to other populations of parents. Funding was received from the International Science Partnership Fund to conduct and evaluation of the programme with Roma families. This has included adapting the programme to meet their needs, based on feedback from Roma families and facilitators, and conducting a small pilot to evaluate its impacts. We are aiming to recruit 40 families to four parent groups to run in the Autumn of 2024. Baseline data was collected prior to the groups starting and follow-up will be collecting soon after the 12-session programme has completed (January 2025).
Papers:
Hutchings, J., Ferdinandi, I., Janowski, R., Ward, C., McCoy, A., Lachman, J.M., Gardner, F. and Williams, M.E. (2024) Parenting for Lifelong Health for Young Children in Montenegro: Preliminary outcomes, dissemination, and broader embedding of the program. Prevention Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-024-01682-x
Williams, M. E., Foran, H. M., Hutchings, J., Frantz, I., Taut, D., Lachman, J., Ward, C. L., & Heinrichs, N. (2022). Exploring factors associated with parent engagement in a parenting program in Southeastern Europe. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 31(11), 3097-3112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02411-0
Jansen, E., Frantz I., Hutchings, J., Lachman, J., Williams, M., …… Heinrichs, N. and Foran, H. M. (2022). Preventing child mental health problems in southeastern Europe: Feasibility study (phase 1 of MOST framework). Family Process, 61(3), 1162-1179. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12720
Tăut, D., Băban, A., Frantz, I., Dănilă, I., Lachman, J.M., Heinrichs, N., Ward, C.L., Gardner, F., Fang, X., Hutchings, J. and Raleva, M. (2021). Prevention of child mental health problems through parenting interventions in Southeastern Europe (RISE): study protocol for a multi-site randomised controlled trial. Trials, 22(1), pp.1-18.