Parenting Programs

Abstract

This paper was aimed at emphasizing the importance of using parenting programs to promote parental competences. There is a need for this support taking into account the complexity of the parenting task in our modern societies. Following the European recommendation on positive parenting, those parenting programs are considered important measures to support parents in their educational role. Forward, several generations of parenting programs at the international context were briefly described and some examples of programs within the national context, as well. This paper provides some reflection on three models of parental education, and shows the results of an experiential parenting programs addressed to parents in psychosocial risk situation in two Spanish communities. A new program “Crecer felices en familia”, still in the implementation phase, was also described. As a conclusion, the paper emphasized the importance of evaluating programs in order to know more about their efficacy and to improve the way of implementation in real settings.

Keywords

• educación parental
• parentalidad positiva
• programas de educación de padres