The effectiveness of the program Growing Up Together - Count Us In Plus

The effectiveness of the program Growing Up Together - Count Us In Plus

We also concluded on the achieved outcomes of the pilot implementation of the “Growing Up Together - Count Us In Plus” program based on quantitative evaluation (Pećnik, 2023). Data were collected at the beginning and end of the workshop cycle using a questionnaire adapted for participants with poor reading and writing skills. The questionnaires were completed by 69 participants, aged 20–54 (M=31.7) and with between 2 and 14 children (D=5).

At the initial workshop, the participants of the program expressed the expectation that through participation in the “Growing Up Together - Count Us In Plus” program, their relationship with their children would improve a lot (75%) or a little (25%). Almost all of them wanted to improve how they felt as individuals (79% a lot, 17% a little). Most of them also wanted to improve their relationship with their partner (67% a lot, 25% a little), while 8% of mothers did not have such an expectation from participating in the program.

At the final workshop, mothers expressed high satisfaction with the changes achieved and rated the workshops' usefulness in improving relationships with their children with an average score of 4.9 (SD=0.328), on a scale of 1 to 5. They also gave high marks to how much the workshops helped them as individuals (M=4.8; SD=0.560), while they rated the usefulness of the workshops in the area of ​​relationships with their partners somewhat lower (M=4.4; SD=0.702).

Feedback on the content of the workshops with parents and joint games was particularly valuable. On a scale of 1 to 5, the participants rated what the facilitators said as extremely useful (a 'perfect five') (M=5; SD=0.141).

The participants of the Program found the joint play between parents and children to be very valuable and also gave it an excellent grade on average (M=4.9; SD=0.277). With a 'five' (M=4.8; SD=0.426), mothers rated the usefulness of children's participation in the program of workshops with children.

The vast majority of mothers rated comic books as very useful (M=4.6; SD=0.956) as well as what they heard from other mothers (M=4.5; SD=0.735).

In conclusion, it can be emphasized that the presented feedback from the participants of the Program - mothers of Roma nationality, of low socio-economic status and with difficulties in fulfilling the parental role - speaks in favor of the potential of the program 'We grow together - Count Us In Plus' to strengthen the psychosocial resources for parenting in parents who raise children in extremely demanding circumstances.

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