Patterns of participation in the Grow parenting program
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-06-2018-0014 |
| Date | 18 March 2019 |
| Pages | 27-41 |
| Published date | 18 March 2019 |
| Author | Melina Czymoniewicz-Klippel,Ryan Chesnut,Jennifer DiNallo,Daniel Perkins |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Vulnerable groups,Children's services,Sociology,Sociology of the family,Children/youth,Parents,Education,Early childhood education,Home culture,Social/physical development |
Patterns of participation in the Grow
parenting program
Melina Czymoniewicz-Klippel, Ryan Chesnut, Jennifer DiNallo and Daniel Perkins
Abstract
Purpose –Employing brief, low-intensity, face-to-face parenting programs can result in improvements in
parenting and child behavior; however, their usefulness is often limited by low participation rates. Online
technologies are increasingly presented as a panacea for promoting program reach in a cost-effective way.
The extant literature, however, provides limited guidance on issues around the implementation of online
parenting programs. Grow is a universal, health-promoting parenting program that targets families with
5–10 year olds and was developed for face-to-face delivery and then adapted for a web-based format.
The purposeof this paper is to present implementationresults from feasibilityproof of concept studies of Grow
Face-to-Face andGrow Online and explores issues regarding mode of deliveryand parent participation.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were gathered from participants using attendance records,
end-of-module/sessionsurveys and semi-structured,in-depth interviews,and were examinedusing descriptive
statistics andinductive thematic analysis.
Findings –Findings suggest that, compared to the online implementation, recruitment was more
difficult for the face-to-face implementation. Conversely, retention in the online program was poorer than in
the face-to-face program. Participants from both programs self-reported high levels of engagement and
satisfaction. Parents who completed Grow Online expressed a desire for more interpersonal interactions,
which suggests a possible need for hybrid programs that combine online technologies with traditional
face-to-face modes of delivery.
Originality/value –These findings challenge the idea that the internet can fully address barriers to parenting
program participation by showing that while parents may sign up more readily for an online program,
they may struggle to complete all modules. This is problematic as program dosage can influence parent and
child outcomes.
Keywords Parenting, Participation, Programme implementation
Paper type Research paper
The rise of children who are overweight or obese is a serious public health concern. In the USA,
the percentage of children with obesity has more than tripled since the 1970s (Fryar et al., 2014).
Today, an estimated one in five school-aged children is obese (Ogden et al., 2016). Childhood
obesity has sobering and longstanding consequences for not only the individual child but
also for families, communities and society. For instance, the estimated direct costs of treating
obesity-related illnesses in children are $14.1bn for annual prescription drugs, emergency room
visits and outpatient expenses (Trasande and Chatterjee, 2009) and $237.6m for inpatient
expenses (Trasande et al., 2009). While genetic and hormonal factors can play a role, lifestyle
issues, namely, too little activity, too many calories from food and drink and an improper diet, are
the main contributors to childhood obesity.
Because of the significant role parents play in shaping their child’s health-related behaviors
(Lindsay et al., 2006), they are also important to target in prevention and intervention work (see
e.g. Golan, 2006). Parents can influence their children’s obesogenic behaviors through general
parenting styles (i.e. their global orientation to childrearing; Sleddens et al., 2011) and practices
(i.e. specific behaviors used to accomplish a goal; Ventura and Birch, 2008). Accordingly,
parenting programs that integrate general parenting content with health behavior messaging
are potentially an extremely useful childhood obesity prevention strategy. However, most
universal parenting programs (i.e. programs focused on providing services and support to the
general population as opposed to subsets of the population identified by risk level; Institute of
Medicine, 2009) do not include specific health promotion content (De Lepeleere et al., 2017),
Received 14 June 2018
Revised 4 October 2018
Accepted 22 November 2018
Conflict of interest: Professor
Daniel Perkins received the award
listed below to conduct the
research in this paper. Drs
Czymoniewicz-Klippel, Chesnut
and DiNallo declare that the
authors have no conflicts of
interest. This material is based
upon work supported by the
National Institute of Food and
Agriculture, US Department of
Agriculture and the Office of Family
Policy, Children, and Youth; US
Department of Defense under
Award No. 2012-48709-20033
developed in collaboration with
The Pennsylvania State University.
The authors acknowledge all
collaborators who have
contributed to the THRIVE Initiative
and the Grow parenting program,
especially C. Eddy Mentzer
(Associate Director, Office of the
Secretary of Defense, Office of
Family Readiness Policy, Military
Community & Family Policy) for his
contributions to program and
study design, implementation and
interpretation of these evaluation
data and Kayla Bell for her
literature review assistance.
(Information about the
authors can be found at the
end of this article.)
DOI 10.1108/JCS-06-2018-0014 VOL. 14 NO. 1 2019, pp. 27-41, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660
j
JOURNAL OF CHILDREN'S SERVICES
j
PAG E 27
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