Parents struggling with children's bedtime or aggression needed

Researchers are looking for parents who would like support dealing with their young children’s fighting and aggression, or difficulties with bedtime.

The Triple P Research Group at The University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education is holding discussion groups for parents of three to five-year-olds who are struggling with these behaviours.

Parents will be asked to share their experiences, before they are equipped with strategies to better manage the behaviours. The strategies are based on 30 years of research by the Triple P Positive Parenting Programme.

The fighting and aggression discussion group will deal with parents’ concerns about managing a child who displays aggressive behaviour toward parents, siblings, and peers.

“This kind of behaviour can be quite detrimental to family functioning and children’s social relationships,” says Research Fellow Dr Cassy Dittman. “Parents will take away better techniques to manage aggression, and strategies to deal with the behaviour with more confidence.”

The bedtime discussion group will focus on issues such as a child refusing to go to bed, not sleeping in their own bed, or getting out of bed during the night.

“We will look at strategies on how to set up a good bedtime routine, and keep children in their own bed during the night, so everyone in the family can get a good night’s sleep,” Cassy says.

Volunteers will provide feedback on the long-term effectiveness of the strategies via questionnaires. The researchers will use the feedback to ensure the Triple P Parenting Programmes are effective and up-to-date.

Each two-hour discussion group will be held at The Faculty of Education’s Epsom Campus in the evening in late April or early May. The final dates will be confirmed once enough participants are registered. The research team is looking for 60 parents to take part in each discussion group.

The discussion groups are part of a free series being held by Triple P throughout the year on different parenting and child behaviour topics.

To volunteer contact the research team on 09 623 8899 ext. 83042 or email tprg@auckland.ac.nz. For more information on Triple P visit www.triplep.net.