Development and Evaluation of a Prenatal Education Course for Grandparents in Japan: A Quasi-experimental Study

To develop and evaluate a prenatal education course that encourages grandparents to fulfill their role in caring for a new grandchild in a balanced and healthy manner.

A quasi-experimental study design was used. The Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate (ADDIE) model was used as the methodological framework for the prenatal education course. The course was self-paced and comprised three videos. To supplement the video materials, the same content was provided in a textual form as well. The cognitive and affective domains of the grandparents' role performance were measured before and after the course using a self-administered questionnaire.

One hundred soon-to-be grandparents were included in the analysis. The post-intervention mean scores in the cognitive domain were higher for all items including: "I know the current situation of grandparenting" (p < .001), "I know the impact of grandparenting on grandparents' health" (p < .001), and "I know how to provide emotional support to mothers" (p < .001). In the affective domain, postintervention mean scores were significantly higher for 11 items including, "I want to help raise my grandchildren when they are born" (p < .003), "Grandparenting makes my own life more enjoyable" (p < .004), "I'm looking forward to raising my grandchildren" (p < .002), and "I would like to assist with household chores when my grandchildren are born" (p < .002).

From a nursing perspective, there has been a lack of prenatal education that considers grandparents as participants in childcare. The prenatal education course helped soon-to-be grandparents understand how they could approach grandparenting and demonstrated the usefulness of increasing awareness about the role of grandparents in the family.