The ELTERN-AG is a primary preventive parent training for parents who are in the family planning phase or have children of pre-school age and for whom one of the following situations applies: socially disadvantaged, low school-leaving qualification, single parent, minor, migration background. The goals of the ELTERN-AG are to improve the parents’ parenting skills, to promote their ability to network with each other and with the professional support system, to strengthen their self-help potential through empowerment and to promote child development. ELTERN-AGs are run by qualified and supervised mentors at local providers. The parents’ meetings take place in an introductory phase and a consolidation phase with ten meetings each and are continued, supported by a transition management, in self-organised meetings. nexus e.V. evaluated the ELTERN-AG with the aim of empirically examining the effect of the approach. The following questions were the focus of the evaluation:
- Does the programme reach the target group of socially disadvantaged parents?
- Does the programme improve perceived social support, networking and empowerment of parents?
- Does the programme improve the parenting behaviour and parenting skills of the participating parents?
- Does the programme have a positive effect on the development of children in a network of services for socially disadvantaged families?
- Is the programme concept implemented with the intended quality criteria?
The evaluation was designed as a five-year longitudinal panel study with a control group.
The evaluation was accompanied by a project advisory board consisting of the following persons:
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Tietze, Free University of Berlin, Educational Science and Psychology, Department of Early Childhood Education, Director pädquis gGmbH
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Heidi Keller, University of Osnabrück, Human Sciences, Development and Culture, Former Head of the Research Unit Development, Learning and Culture of the Lower Saxony Institute for Early Childhood Education and Development (nifbe, until 10/2014)
Prof. Dr Günter Mey, Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences, Applied Human Sciences, Developmental Psychology
Duration: 04/2010 – 03/2013
Client: MAPP Empowerment GmbH (gemeinnützig)
Team: Benjamin Albrecht, Saskia Bochmann, Dr. Birgit Böhm, Daphne Reim, Marisa Schneider