The Acceptability of Parenting Strategies for Grandparents Providing Care to Their Grandchildren

Abstract

Despite the evidence supporting parenting programmes as a pathway to reduce and prevent childhood emotional and behavioural problems, these programmes still have low rates of uptake by families in the community. One way of increasing the participation rates of families in parenting programmes is to adopt a consumer's perspective to programme design and development. This study sought to examine whether grandparents providing regular care to their grandchildren viewed the strategies advocated in a parenting programme developed specifically for them as being acceptable and useful, and whether there were barriers to programme use. Forty-five grandparents, with an average age of 61.4 years (SD = 5.0), participated in the study. Grandparents provided between 11 and 20 h of care per week to their grandchildren, who were on average 4.5 years old (SD = 2.4), with the majority being boys (60 %). Results revealed that grandparents found the strategies promoted in the parenting programme highly acceptable and useful and were likely to use the strategies. Barriers to using specific strategies included time demands and belief that a specific strategy would not work. The implications of these findings are discussed within the context of consumer involvement in programme design and development.