Parent-child Psychosocial Project

Strengthening Children’s and their Parents/ Caregivers’ Psychosocial and Moral Development through Multiple Family Experiential Parent Education Programme

With the generous support from the Tin Ka Ping Education Fund, the Institute implemented the Parent-Child Psychosocial Project (“PCPP”) during the period from August 2021 to November 2022.

This project was built on the multiple-family therapy model to strengthen children’s and their parents/ caregivers’ psychosocial and moral development. The main purposes of PCPP were to: (I) enhance children and their parents/caregivers’ psychosocial competence through multiple family experiential parent education; (II) provide family-based and experiential parent education for building the assets and human capitals of school.

Four participating schools located in Taipo public housing area joined this Programme. A total of 100 families were selected from these four participating schools based on a set of selection criteria agreed by the schools, with 25 families from each school. All these families were reported to have higher psychosocial development needs as assessed by their school principals, teachers, and school social workers. These families were also seen as more prone to the adverse effects brought by the pandemic and related financial downturn.

During the Programme period, workshops, talks and day-camps addressing various parent education topics were conducted. Due to the pandemic, the schedule and the format of the activities were modified. There were 17 sessions of online Zoom or face-to-face talks/ seminars/ workshops on parent-child psychosocial development arranged from August 2021 to July 2022. Altogether, a total count of 1,137 participants joined these sessions. With reference to experiential intervention activities, a total of six day camps comprising 12 sessions (one day-camp had two sessions) were originally proposed. Due to the outbreak of the fifth wave of COVID-19 in early 2022, the number of day-camps were reduced from six to five.

Both teachers and caregivers were invited to provide feedback on the helpfulness and effectiveness of the content of PCPP in their work with these target children. A 26-item questionnaire was used to explore participants’ (parents and caregivers) and school personnel’s views on how the Programme has helped the development of psychosocial dimensions (e.g., optimism, competence and belongingness) of the children and the parents or caregivers. Focus group interviews were conducted at the end of the Programme to collect qualitative feedback for evaluation and fine-tuning of the Programme in future.

According to the quantitative and qualitative responses collected, the parents, caregivers, and teachers were impressed by the impact of PCPP on participants' psychosocial development. Parents joining the programme were able to engage in quality time with their own children and also make connections with other parents from the same school through multiple-family day camp trainings. Besides, the PCPP programme enriched their family relationship and cohesiveness, and fostered mutual communication with their children.