Two Sides of a Coin: Parental Disease-Specific Training as Seen by Health Care Practitioners and Parents in Pediatric Liver Transplantation

In the absence of widely accepted education standards for parents of children after liver transplantation (LTx), the content and structure of parental training are influenced by health care practitioners’ (HCP) individual knowledge and assessment of the relevance of its contents. This study examines the hypothesis that expectations towards training differ between HCPs and parents, and that the quality of parental training affects the job-satisfaction of HCPs. Attitudes towards disease-specific education were assessed by tailor-made questionnaires in HCPs (n = 20) and parents of children with chronic liver disease or after LTx (n = 113). These were supplemented by focused interviews in n = 7 HCPs and n = 16 parents. Parents were more satisfied with current counseling than HCP. Language barriers and low parental educational background were perceived as obstacles by 43% of HCPs. The quality of parental knowledge was felt to have a strong influence on HCPs job satisfaction. The expectations towards the content of disease-specific education largely overlap but are not synonymous. HCP and parents agreed with regards to the importance of medication knowledge. Parents rated the importance about the meaning of laboratory values and diagnostic procedures significantly higher (3.50 vs. 2.85, p < 0.001 and 3.42 vs. 2.80, p < 0.001) than HCPs. Parents and HCPs would prefer a structured framework with sufficient staff resources for disease-specific counseling.

Early childhood development and parental training interventions in rural China: a systematic review and meta-analysis

IntroductionInadequate care during early childhood can lead to long-term deficits in skills. Parenting programmes that encourage investment in young children are a promising tool for improving early development outcomes and long-term opportunities in low-income and middle-income regions, such as rural China.MethodsWe conducted a systematic review and a meta-analysis to investigate the prevalence of early developmental delays and stimulating parenting practices as well as the effect of parental training programmes on child development outcomes in rural China. We obtained data in English from EconPapers, PubMed, PsycARTICLES, Cochrane Library, Web of Science and Scopus (Elsevier) and in Chinese from China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data and VIP Information. We conducted frequentist meta-analyses of aggregate data and estimated random-effects meta-regressions. Certainty of evidence was rated according to the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach.ResultsWe identified 19 observational studies on the prevalence of developmental delays and stimulating parenting practices for children under 5 years of age (n=19 762) and ten studies on the impact of parental training programmes on early child development (n=13 766). Children’s risk of cognitive, language and social-emotional delays in the rural study sites (covering 14 provinces mostly in Central and Western China) was 45%, 46%, and 36%, respectively. Parental training programmes had a positive impact on child cognition, language and social-emotional development.ConclusionThere is evidence to suggest that early developmental delay and the absence of stimulating parenting practices (ie, reading, storytelling and singing with children) may be prevalent across rural, low-income and middle-income regions in Central and Western China. Results support the effectiveness of parental training programmes to improve early development by encouraging parental engagement.Trial registration numberThis study was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020218852).

Changes and Challenges: Parenting Challenges in Iranian Mothers

Having adolescents affect many aspects of the parent's lives. The aim of this study was to investigate the parenting challenges within the cultural background of Iranian mothers. The participants consisted of 24 mothers who were selected using a purposive sampling method. Semistructured interviews were recorded and transcribed for further analysis. To analyse the data, a thematic analysis was carried out. The analysis of the data shows that for Iranian mothers, parenting challenges are categorised into seven themes: (a) Sense of diminished power and control, (b) Sense of inadequacy, (c) Lack of father's participation, (d) New situation, coping and resolve, (e) Altered relationships issues, (f) Unfulfilled expectations, and (g) Environmental threats. Based on the findings of our study, parenting challenges are culture-bound and controversial, and dealing with them requires parental training.

The Effectiveness of Barkley's Parent Training on Social Skills of Students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Background: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) damages the children’s communicative and social performance. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of Barkley’s parental training on social skills of students with ADHD. Methods: This random trial was conducted on primary school students with ADHD in Isfahan in academic year 2016 - 2017. As a result, 40 students with ADHD were selected from primary school students with ADHD via clustered random sampling method and were randomly categorized into case and control groups. The parents in the case group received fifteen sixty-minute therapeutic interventions in two months. The applied questionnaires included ADHD questionnaire and social skills questionnaire. The data were analyzed using ANCOVA method. Results: The results showed that Barkley’s parental training had significant effect on social skills of students with ADHD (P-value < 0.001) so that this therapy could improve social skills in ADHD students. Conclusion: According to the findings, it can be concluded that Barkley’s parental training can be applied as an efficient treatment to improve social skills of ADHD children by modifying parents’ interactional and parental model.