The Happy Parenting Program aims to investigate new ways to provide support to parents with young children from an early age. This will inform how we can better help parents establish a good relationship with their child from infancy and improve aspects such as parenting confidence, stress and long-term outcomes.

Who can take part?

• We invite people from the local community to join this project
• Parents (or primary carers) of babies aged around 4-6 months or 12-18 months
• Parents with a good understanding of spoken and written English and aged 18 years or older
• Parents willing and able to attend parenting classes with their baby
• Parents with access to the Internet and device to engage in online content

What does participation involve?

If you meet the criteria and agree to participate, we will ask you to attend parent-child parenting sessions.

Parenting Sessions

We are investigating different types of parenting support; education-focused and play-focused.
You will be randomly assigned into one type of parenting workshops.

These workshops go for approximately an hour, once a week for eight consecutive weeks. We have infant sessions available for when your child is around 4-6 months old and toddler sessions when your child is around 12-18 months old.

• We ask that at least one parent attend these sessions with their child.
• The sessions will be held either in person (northside at Greenwood or southside at East Victoria Park) or online.
• All sessions are free of charge and are facilitated by tertiary-educated early childhood specialists.
• Sessions will run during school hours and during the school term.

Assessments and Samples

You will also be asked to complete online questionnaires before and after each set of parenting sessions (there are two sets of sessions) to provide information on your thoughts around parenting, mealtimes and child development. We will also ask you to provide feedback on the sessions.

We will also ask you to record a message for the study team talking about your relationship with your child, and a nutritionist will contact before and after at the second set of workshops.

There is an optional assessment where we will ask you to collect four saliva swabs, from you and your child, to assess stress levels by measuring the amount of cortisol you are both producing. We will look at how these levels change throughout the day and how closely your child’s hormones mirror his/her parents’.

What are the possible benefits of participating?

There are no costs to the participant for involvement in the project.

By participating in this research you are helping the researchers to find a better way to support parents of young children. In addition, you may find some benefit from the increased social connection and support provided by the parenting sessions.

Further Information

Download the Happy Parenting Program Participant Information Brochure here

Phone: Kathryn Webb +61 8 6304 2228

Email: parenting@ecu.edu.au