title: Parenting self-efficacy, parenting stress and child behaviour before and after a parenting programme.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore whether changes in parenting self-efficacy after attending a parenting programme are related to changes in parenting stress and child behaviour.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Adverse parenting is a risk factor in the development of a range of health and behavioural problems in childhood and is predictive of poor adult outcomes. Strategies for supporting parents are recognised as an effective way to improve the health, well-being and development of children. Parenting is influenced by many factors including the behaviour and characteristics of the child, the health and psychological well-being of the parent and the contextual influences of stress and support. Parenting difficulties are a major source of stress for parents, and parenting self-efficacy has been shown to be an important buffer against parenting stress.
  
  
  METHODS
  In all, 63 parents who had a child under the age of 10 years took part in the research. Of those, 58 returned completed measures of parenting self-efficacy, parenting stress and child behaviour at the start of a parenting programme and 37 at three-month follow-up.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Improvements in parenting self-efficacy and parenting stress were found at follow-up, but there was less evidence for improvements in child behaviour. The findings clearly suggest a relationship between parenting self-efficacy and parenting stress; parents who are feeling less efficacious experience higher levels of stress, whereas greater parenting self-efficacy is related to less stress. This study adds to the evidence that parent outcomes may be a more reliable measure of programme effectiveness than child outcomes at least in the short term.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research in Primary and Community Care, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK. l.j.bloomfield@herts.ac.uk
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bloomfield
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kendall
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004522:Educational Status; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011594:Psychometrics; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012944:Social Support; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult