The Great Parenting Experiment

You can find information on the study below:

What is the purpose of the study?

Triple P is an Australian system which helps parents with their children. ITV is showing a series which shows some families using Triple P week by week to help manage their child’s behaviour. As a big national experiment, we are offering parents of 3 to 9 year old children the opportunity to work alongside the series and try out the positive parenting advice for themselves. We would like to evaluate this to see if it is helpful to parents and children.

What will I have to do?

We will ask you to fill in questionnaires about your child’s behaviour and development (If you have more than one child between the ages 3 and 9  please complete the questionnaires based on only one child's behaviour).

An example would be:

How confident are you in managing you child’s behaviour when getting your child ready to go out?

You are also asked to fill in questionnaires on how well you are coping with parenting, and how you are feeling. Parents are asked to fill these in before and after they watch the television series, and again a few months later to see whether the advice that is offered is helping their child.  The questionnaires will take about 30-40 minutes to complete.

We would like to be able to use the information from your questionnaires to find out whether watching the positive parenting television series is helpful.

Do I have to take part?

It is absolutely up to you. It is up to you whether you decide to fill in the questionnaires.   You can look at them on the website and decide whether you want to complete them.  If you decide to take part and then later change your mind, either before the study, during or afterwards, you can withdraw without giving your reasons and, if you wish, your data can be deleted.

What will happen to me if I take part?

We would like you to commit yourself to watching the series, and trying out the ideas that you see in the programmes with your own child or children. The first 1,000 parents who sign up will be posted a self-help workbook, either at the beginning of the study or the end. Some will also have access to a website and email help to ask questions to a parenting advisor. Your questionnaire responses will be collected into a computer program and put together anonymously with responses from other parents who are watching the television series.

Are there possible disadvantages and risks of taking part?

As far as we know, there are no disadvantages or risks of taking part.

What are the possible benefits of taking part?

We hope that the positive parenting approaches that you see on television will help you. Most parents who use the workbooks find them helpful. The information we get from this study should help us to find out whether watching a television series is a good way help parents with young children.

Will my taking part in this study be kept confidential?

All information which is collected about you during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential. We need your address so that we can send you a self-help book, in case you are chosen for that part of the study. We will keep your address completely separate from the rest of the research information, and no one will have access to this apart from the person who is sending you the book. We also need your email address to send reminders to watch the program and complete the questionnaires. We will not use your email address for any other purpose.   When we analyse questionnaire responses, we will keep this information completely separate from your family’s names and address.

Because the study involves children, and we are bound by child protection guidelines, you need to be aware that if you gave us information that led to concerns that a child might be harmed, we might need to break confidentiality.  In these circumstances we would contact you first, but might then need to make contact with services local to you.

What will happen to the results of the research study?

At the end of the study, we will put a report of our main findings on the website. The results of the study will be published in a scientific journal, and presented at conferences so that other people can hear about it. Newspapers and TV sometimes pick up on studies with interesting findings, and this can be very helpful in letting more people know about ways of helping families. Under no circumstances would your identity be revealed.

What should I do if I need more help?

If taking part in the study, or watching the series on TV raises issues that make you upset or concerned, and you feel that you need more help with any of these, you should go to your GP or health visitor who will be able to advise you or put you in touch with services locally who can help you.

Who is organising and funding the research?

This research is organised as a collaboration between the University of Manchester, UK and the University of Queensland, Australia and is being funded by a government grant. 

If you want to contact us, the quickest way is to email us at GPE@manchester.ac.uk

At Manchester the principal researcher is:  Dr Rachel Calam, School of Psychological Sciences, Zochonis Building, Oxford Road, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL.

At the University of Manchester, this study has been approved by the School of Psychological Sciences Research Ethics Committee. This study has also been cleared by one of the human ethics committees of the University of Queensland in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council's guidelines. You are of course, free to discuss your participation in this study with project staff (contactable on 0161 306 0400). If you would like to speak to an officer of the University not involved in the study, you may contact Dr Tim Stibbs on 0161 275 2046).

Technical Issues

If you have any technical issues with regards to this website, please contact GPE@manchester.ac.uk for assistance.