2025/09/23 by Judy Hutchings, Sarah Jones, Anwen Jones +2 · 1 voice
Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · #Child Nutrition and Water Access #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development #Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/children12101280
openalex publication_date 2025/09/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Based on years of work from high-income countries, the Parenting for Lifelong Health programme for parents of Young Children (PLH-YC) was developed by the first and last authors, as a freely available low-cost programme for low-income families in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The initial group-based 12-session programme has since been delivered, adapted, and evaluated across many LMICs and now has a significant body of evidence. Over the last 10 years, early intervention services in the UK have been considerably reduced whilst, exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19, service demands have grown. This paper describes a feasibility trial of the 12-session PLH-YC programme in Wales to explore whether it could recruit and retain parents, and demonstrate improvements in parenting skills and reductions in child behaviour problems. METHODS: Two small pre-post trials were conducted in socially disadvantaged communities in Wales, and they were delivered by local parenting practitioners. Of the 20 parents recruited across 3 groups, 17 provided pre- and post-course data and 10 completed qualitative interviews. RESULTS: Retention was good (85%) with mean attendance of 8.7 sessions, and parental and facilitator feedback reported high levels of satisfaction with the programme, with the only recommendation being to make the programme longer and for facilitators to be given more time. Results showed significant benefits to parent-reported parenting practices, child behaviour, and parental mental wellbeing. CONCLUSIONS: These preliminary results justify work to develop a rigorous evaluation to establish whether PLH-YC could have a place among parenting-support programmes in the UK.