Incredible Years Wales:
The Welsh Centre for Promoting
the Incredible Years Programmes
Title:
“Promoting
the Incredible Years Programmes in Wales and the Sure Start Research”
Presented
by: Judy
Hutchings, NWW NHS Trust and Director, Incredible Years Cymru
Authors:
Hutchings, J., Bywater, T. and Jones, K.
Abstract:
The paper
reports on a three-year evaluation of the BASIC Webster-Stratton Parenting
Programme, funded by the Health Foundation. The study is being undertaken
by the first author and colleagues in the School of Psychology, University
of Wales, Bangor, in collaboration with local Sure Start Services. This research
is being conducted to establish the effectiveness of the parenting programme
in reducing existing challenging behaviour in identified high risk three-
to four-year-olds, both short and longer term by enhancing parental skills.
Participants consist of 126 families randomly allocated to either the intervention
and control condition (84 and 42 respectively). Intervention families join
one of thirteen groups based in Sure Start Centres across North and Mid-Wales
and the borders. Parents are interviewed and questionnaires are completed
at baseline and six months after baseline for both conditions, and at twelve
and eighteen months after baseline for the intervention families. The measures
used assess; demographic and family risk factors, parental competencies, child
social competence, child verbal ability and child conduct problems. In addition,
direct observational assessments provide an objective measure of both parent
and child behaviour. Project staff, who have been trained in the Dyadic Parent-Child
Interaction Coding System for evaluating the quality of parent-child interactions,
undertake direct observation of parents and children within their own homes.
Although
some of the risk factors for conduct disorder are similar, the largely rural,
and in some cases bilingual, population in North West Wales is very different
to the urban population of Seattle, Washington where the programme was developed.
The study will assess the transferability of the programme to this rural Welsh
population. Control measures relating to the quality of delivery of the programme,
including weekly supervision of group leaders have been put in place to encourage
strict implementation fidelity.
This
paper gives an overview of progress to date. Preliminary findings, demonstrating
the effectiveness of the programme, will be presented in the form of one parental
and one child measure. One of the measures used for assessing child conduct
is the Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory (ECBI). ECBI data at baseline and
at the 6-month follow-up for groups 1-7, plus twelve-month follow-up for groups
1-4 will be presented. Observational data of parental competency will be presented
from the same time points. The importance of implementation fidelity will
also be emphasised.