Browsing by Author "Lachman, Jamie M"

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    Early intervention: a foundation for lifelong violence prevention.
    (2015) Skeen, Sarah; Tomlinson, Mark; Ward, Catherine L; Cluver, Lucie; Lachman, Jamie M
    High levels of violence affect every family in South Africa. Exposure to violence starts early, in both the home and community. There are high levels of physical abuse of children,1 and the national under-five homicide rate is more than double that of other low- and middle-income countries.2 Rates of violence are particularly high in poorer communities in the country, and many children already made vulnerable by poverty are also at risk from increased exposure to violence
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    Measuring dysfunctional parenting: Psychometrics of three versions of the Parenting Scale
    (2022) Prandstetter, Katharina; Waller, Franziska; Heinrichs, Nina; Hutchings, Judy; Ward, Catherine L; Danila, Ingrid; Lachman, Jamie M; Foran, Heather M
    Abstract Objective: This study assessed the psychometric properties of three versions of the Parenting Scale (PS; original PS, 13-item version, and 10-item version) in three European middle-income countries. Background: The PS is one of the most frequently used questionnaires for measuring dysfunctional discipline strategies. Although its validity has been extensively investigated in American samples, there are mixed results regarding the recommended number of items and subscales, raising the question of replicability across European middle-income countries. Method: Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) and item response theory (IRT) were applied to N = 835 parents from North Macedonia, Moldova, and Romania. Results: All three versions were significantly correlated with parental- and child-related variables. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated the best model fit for the 10-item version, and configural and partial metric invariance across countries could be established for this version. Item response theory analyses also supported this measure. Conclusions: Our findings show that the 10-item version performed better than the 13-item version and the original PS both overall and on the country level. Reliability values were somewhat lower than reported in studies from the United States. Implications: The 10-item version constitutes a promising short measure for assessing dysfunctional parenting in European middle-income countries for researchers and practitioners.
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    Predictors of Attendance and the Impact of Attendance on Outcomes for a Parenting Programme in Two Southeast Asian Countries
    (2020) Janowski, Roselinde Katharina; Ward, Catherine L; Lachman, Jamie M
    Background: Children living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) experience alarmingly high rates of maltreatment, frequently at the hands of caregivers. Group-based parenting programmes show promise for reducing and preventing child maltreatment, as well as for improving positive parenting, child behaviour problems, and caregiver mental health. However, parenting programmes can only benefit families if caregivers participate in them. Using secondary data, this study thus aimed to 1) identify factors that affect attendance and 2) investigate the impact of attendance on outcomes within two randomised controlled trials of Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) for Young Children for caregivers of children aged 2-9 years in Thailand (N = 120) and 2-6 years in the Philippines (N = 120). The interventions were delivered within existing service delivery systems in both countries, over eight weekly sessions (Thailand) or 12 sessions every second week (Philippines). Method: To address the first aim of this study, multivariable logistic regression models with robust sandwich estimators were used to examine family baseline characteristic as predictors of caregiver attendance in sessions. An exploratory approach was taken to test a range of factors that have previously been linked to attendance in parenting programmes, including economic and educational, social and health, parenting and child behaviour, and sociodemographic characteristics. To address the second aim, caregiver self-reports and observational assessments (Thailand only) from baseline, post-test, and follow-up were analysed using complier average causal effect (CACE) analyses to test the impact of attendance variability on the primary outcomes of child maltreatment, as well as secondary outcomes of positive parenting, dysfunctional parenting, child behaviour problems, and caregiver mental health. Results: Caregivers in Thailand attended 82.3% of sessions while those in the Philippines attended 61.8%. Overall, few baseline factors were significantly associated with attendance. In Thailand, caregivers who were less educated and those who were older were significantly more likely to attend sessions. In the Philippines, caregivers who were less healthy, those that who used more emotional abuse, and those who had boys rather than girls were significantly more likely to attend. Notably, caregivers who experienced higher rates of intimate partner violence significantly attended 8% fewer sessions in the Philippines. A comparison of CACE estimates to intention-to-treat estimates at post-test and at follow-up showed greater benefits of the intervention amongst caregivers who attended more sessions. Specifically, the strongest intervention effects were found for caregivers who attended at least 75% of the programme. Conclusion: This study showed no evidence that disadvantages related to lower socio-economic status were associated with attendance, suggesting that it is possible for vulnerable families in LMICs to attend parenting programmes. However, developing retention strategies that target subgroups who are at greater risk of missing sessions is especially important as higher attendance at sessions is positively related to greater improvements in caregiver and child outcomes.
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    Prevention of child mental health problems through parenting interventions in Southeastern Europe (RISE): study protocol for a multi-site randomised controlled trial
    (2021-12-27) Tăut, Diana; Băban, Adriana; Frantz, Inga; Dănilă, Ingrid; Lachman, Jamie M; Heinrichs, Nina; Ward, Catherine L; Gardner, Frances; Fang, Xiangming; Hutchings, Judy; Raleva, Marija; Lesco, Galina; Murphy, Hugh; Foran, Heather
    Background Childhood adversities, such as poor parental practices, exposure to violence, and risk behaviours strongly impact children’s future mental and behavioural problems. Adversities affect families living in disadvantaged environments and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to a greater extent than in high-income countries. Parenting programmes are an effective way to alleviate them, although their outreach and scalability is still limited in LMICs. Methods/design A multi-site randomised controlled trial will be conducted in North Macedonia, Republic of Moldova and Romania to test the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of an optimised version of the promising Parenting for Lifelong Health Programme for Young Children (PLH-YC, 5 sessions), against a standard lecture on parenting issues (control group, 1 session). At least 864 participants who report having children between 2 and 9 years old who display elevated levels of behavioural difficulties will be randomised on a 1:1 basis to the intervention and control groups. The primary outcome will consist of parent report of child oppositional aggressive behaviour. Post-test (four months) and follow-up (12 months) assessments will provide information on short- and longer-term effects of PLH-YC compared to the parenting lecture in the control group. Discussion This randomised trial will test the efficacy of PLH-YC in alleviating child behavioural problems and assess the cost-effectiveness, transportability across three different cultural contexts, and potential for scalability of the programme. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov ., Registration number: NCT04721730 ( https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04721730 ). Registered 13.01.2021