Parenting Young Children to get gold-standard evaluation

October 2021

A Parenting Research Centre (PRC) program designed for parents with learning difficulties is being evaluated in a gold-standard randomised controlled trial in Sweden.

Since 2010, the Parenting Young Children (PYC) program has been providing training to Australian, Swedish, Norwegian and Japanese professionals so they can help parents with intellectual disabilities learn basic childcare skills. So far, more than 1500 professionals have been trained to use the program with families.

Robust evaluation

A consortium of researchers in Sweden has recently received funding to conduct a rigorous independent evaluation of PYC. The new research project began in August 2020 and has been funded for four years.

The funding (approx. AU$800,000) was awarded to nine researchers from different disciplines and institutions across Sweden, including Dr Gunnel Janeslätt from the SUF Resource Center in Uppsala, and Professor Thomas Strandberg from Dalarna University in Falun.

The project will adopt a mixed-methods approach – including a randomised controlled trial to examine the effectiveness of the program – and the research will also capture the perspective of parents and children.

International reach

PYC has been operating in Sweden for more than 10 years. In September 2021 a new iteration of professional training was delivered in Sweden in the form of online training with 25 family workers. We are keen to continue exploring the online delivery of the program, and will liaise with the Swedish providers to monitor its success.

In addition, more than 200 professionals from Norway have also been trained to use PYC. In late 2021 and early 2022, six more training events will take place with a further 150 professionals engaging with PYC from across Norway.

Later this year, PRC’s Catherine Wade and Christian Thompson will meet with the Norwegian providers of the PYC training at the University of South-Eastern Norway to firm up ongoing collaboration between the two organisations.

Professionals in Japan have also been trained to use the program, and we are collaborating further with Tokyo Kasei University to plan a program of continued research and training in Japan.

Find out more

• Read more about the Parenting Young Children program
• Read about our work in Japan
• Read more about our work in Sweden and Norway