Involving Young People in Parenting Programmes
SECTION 3
3.2 Parents in the Study Sample
Although in total approximately 127 families took part in the IYPP project interventions, out of that number 119 parents who completed the ‘Before’ questionnaires were included in the PRB’s evaluation study.
This sample was made up of:
- 101 mothers where only the mothers took part in an intervention
- 5 fathers where only the fathers took part in an intervention
- 13 mothers where fathers also took part in an intervention and completed questionnaires
In relation to this last group, the mothers and fathers who took part in an intervention together, the PRB designated the mothers the main carers in order to maintain consistency with the rest of the families who were represented by the views of only one parent, the majority of whom were mothers. Additionally, because of this small number (13) of mother and father couples completing questionnaires, no analysis was carried out separately on couples’ experiences. It is important to bear in mind therefore when reading the findings below that the sample included in the evaluation study does not include all parents and young people who took part in the interventions:
- Some parents and young people chose not to complete questionnaires
- Some fathers who completed questionnaires were not included in the study sample
Just over half of the parents included in the sample were single and not living with a partner (n4=65) with the remaining parents married or living with a partner (n=53). Nearly 3/4 of parents were over 35 years old, with almost half being between 35 and 44 years old. The parents were mostly White British (n=107) with a small number of parents defining their ethnic group as either Black (n=2), mixed race (n=2), Asian (6), or other (n=2).
The parents were also asked their employment status. Of the 119 parents included in the sample almost equal numbers of parents described themselves as working full time or part-time (n=45), as were “looking after family and home” (n=46). Of the remaining parents, 14 were sick or unable to work, 7 were unemployed, 4 were in full time education or training and two parents recorded ‘other’ as their employment status.5
Out of the 119 parents included in the sample:
- 119 parents completed ‘Before’ questionnaires
- 73 parents completed both ‘Before’ and ‘After’ questionnaires
- 18 out of the 119 parents (15%)‘dropped out’ or did not complete the intervention
Additionally 4 parents completed only ‘After’ questionnaires.
Ten parents were interviewed individually by the PRB at the end of the project (2 from each site), all were mothers.