Effectiveness of mixed-mode parenting training program during the COVID-19 pandemic: A quasi-experiment study in Hong Kong

This study examined the effectiveness of a mixed-mode parenting training program in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic with a quasi-experiment. Altogether 139 parents of preschoolers (ages 3–6) participated in this study and completed the survey on Family Emotional Expressiveness, Child Behavior, Authoritative & Responsive & Negative Parenting across three time points during the lockdowns. They were cluster randomly assigned to the intervention (N1 = 69) and control groups (N2 = 70). The intervention was a 3-month mixed-mode parental training program, including 12-session videos followed by phone calls and homework assignments. The control group did not receive any parental training during the same period. The repeated ANOVA results indicated that: (1) there was a significant main effect of Time (p =.012, ηp2 = 0.045) on parents physical coercion dimension (PCD) scores and also a significant interaction effect between Time and Group (p =.042, ηp2 = 0.032), with the experimental group improved more over time; (2) there was a significant main effect of time (p =.027, ηp2 = 0.036) on parents’ verbal hostility dimension (VHD) scores, but no significant Time*Group interaction effect; (3) there was no significant Time effect in parents’ score on Negative Submissive (NS), but there was a significant interaction effect between time and group (p =.004, ηp2 = 0.054), with the experimental group reduced more than the control group. These results further provided empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of a mixed-mode parental training program in reducing negative parenting, including the negative submissive emotional expressions at home, physical coercion, and verbal hostility in interacting with preschool children at home. Implications based on social-cultural contexts are also discussed.