A qualitative evaluation of a preventive intervention for parents: The Groups for Family Enrichment_Parent version (GFE_P)

The traditional objective of parenting enrichment programs is to train parents’ abilities and specific competences, but less attention is paid to promoting participants’ reflection on their parental identity. These programs are generally delivered to groups of parents, though the group is rarely considered a specific tool to promote changes in participants’ relational functioning. The “Groups for Family Enrichment_Parent version”\r\n(GFE_P; Iafrate, Donato, & Bertoni, 2010; Iafrate & Rosnati, 2007) focus on parental identity in addition to parental competences and skills and purposely use the group of parents as educational tool, adopting a semistructured format. In this article we first introduced the characteristics of GFE_P, then we presented the results of a qualitative evaluation of an application of this intervention to a group of Italian parents. Findings from the process evaluation showed that participants actively contributed to the development of themes during the intervention. Result evaluation suggested that the recognition of key aspects of parental identity can be an important prerequisite to the acquisition of better parenting skills. Implications for parenting programs design are discussed.