Study title

The project aims at assessing the efficacy of the parents program ‘familY: Eltern bilden; Kinder stärken’, the ‘buddy E.V.’ takes responsibility for. It starts before entry to elementary school and is dedicated to socioeconomic disadvantaged parents. Besides the participants’ satisfaction with the program, the focus lies on its efficacy and sustainability. A pre-post comparison is used to determine the competence development of the participants (training group) and compare it to the control group. The control group is formed by parents who have not participated in the program, but who are as similar as possible to the training group with respect to socioeconomic characteristics. Therefore, it is a quasi-experimental design with several survey periods. The surveys took place (a) prior to, (b) during and (c) straight after the training as well as (d) 3 months and (e) 12 months after finishing the training. Topics: Supporting autonomy in everyday life (encouraging the own child in autonomy with respect to, for example: expenditure of pocket money, choice of TV-program, organization of vacation, style of clothing, leisure activities); parental sensitivity for childish feelings; use of learning opportunities in everyday life (common reflection of read aloud stories; realization of situations where the child can use newly developed skills; attempting to let the child learn in a playful way as much as possible; fast recognition of situations, which arouse the curiosity of the child; letting the child the possibility to ask questions while reading aloud; supporting the child’s development by leaving small tasks to it in everyday life; letting the child the possibility to add ideas while reading a book aloud or looking at a storybook; motivating the child to tell stories from the Kindergarten; showing interest in thoughts of the child; considering the favorite subjects of the child while borrowing or buying a book); encouragement in everyday life* (frequency of...