Supporting parents in the Global South: implementation of a faith-based parent program in 12 countries

Parenting programs are effective ways to reduce child maltreatment and promote nurturing parent-child relationships. Yet, the potential of faith-based, positive parent programs, particularly those conducted globally at scale, remains underexplored. We conducted a pre-post and 6-month follow-up, single-group study of a faith- and community-based parenting program, Celebrating Families (CF), in 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and South East Asia. Using a train-the-trainers model, faith leaders delivered group-based parenting workshops over 3-5 days to a nonrandomized sample of 2201 caregivers across 12 countries. Data was collected at three time points. Shifts in caregiver attitudes and beliefs were assessed pre- and post, and harsh parenting behaviors were measured at pre- and 6-months after CF parent program implementation. Acceptability was demonstrated by high attendance and high satisfaction ratings from facilitators and caregivers. Trained faith and community leaders feasibly delivered the CF parent groups and were rated by caregivers to have strong teaching skills. Qualitative analysis of their feedback at 6-month follow-up highlighted barriers to implementation and areas for improvement. Results with those caregivers who completed the program suggest large to medium effect size improvements in caregiver attitudes around harsh discipline and nurturing parenting by country and change in reported use of harsh parenting behaviors at 6 months. Findings suggest that CF is a feasible and acceptable program with promising short-term effects for caregivers of children and adolescents in low- and middle-income countries.