Evaluation of the International Child Development Programme (ICDP) as a community-wide parenting programme

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Parenting Interventions
• Community Health Programs

Background:

• Parenting programs often lack rigorous evaluation, particularly during widespread community implementation.
• Assessing the effectiveness of general parenting programs is crucial for public health.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of the eight-week International Child Development Programme (ICDP) as a universal parenting intervention.
• To determine if ICDP improves parenting practices and psychosocial functioning in a non-clinical population.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental design compared caregivers attending ICDP (N=141) with a non-attending community control group (N=79).
• Questionnaires assessed parenting, psychosocial functioning, and child difficulties pre- and post-intervention.
• Statistical analyses compared changes in scores between the two groups over time.

Main Results:

• The ICDP group demonstrated enhanced positive attitudes towards child management, improved parenting strategies, and reduced perceived impact of child difficulties.
• Caregivers with initially lower scores on key measures experienced the greatest benefits.
• The control group showed minimal changes, with a notable decrease in caregiver-child activity scale scores.

Conclusions:

• Community-based parent training utilizing the ICDP model can effectively benefit non-clinical caregivers.
• The findings support ICDP's utility for enhancing parenting skills and psychosocial well-being in the general population.
• Targeted support may be most impactful for caregivers with lower baseline functioning.