Victoria Hidalgo García
University of Sevilla
Family Support Programmes for the promotion of positive parenting
Participantes: María José Rodrigo1; José Sánchez2; Sofía Baena2 and Ainoa Mateos Inchaurrondo3
1University of La Laguna; 2University of Seville; 3University of Barcelona
Symposium Summary
Introduction: In today's society there is a clear concern for families' educational and socialization practices, hoping that they are in line with those that research has shown to promote the healthy development of children and adolescents. Thus, in the European context, mothers and fathers are expected to have a positive performance of their parenthood, that is to say, that they are able to promote positive relationships with their sons and daughters; relationships that must be based on the exercise of parental responsibility, that guarantee the rights of children, and promote their development and adaptation in different development contexts. Aware of the complexity of what is requested and expected of families, actions to support families have gained weight within the social policies of many countries, especially since the Recommendation 19 of Council of Europe on policy to support positive parenting (Council of Europe, 2006). Together with the description of what is considered positive parenting, this recommendation reflects the need for social policies of European countries to include actions that provide families with all the necessary support to accomplish their educational responsibilities and urges European countries to implement preventive and psychoeducational actions for all families. Methods: From this approach of prevention and promotion of positive parenting, a significant number of psychoeducational interventions have emerged and have been developed in Spain, which share the same purpose: families' training and support so that they can adequately face the tasks and responsibilities related to socialization and education of their sons and daughters. Results: Different intervention programmes which are currently implemented in different communities of our country are presented at this symposium. All of them share the purpose of providing families with the necessary support for the positive performance of their educational functions and responsibilities, but they differ both in specific characteristics of the target families and in the intervention modality and methodology. Discussion: Programmes presented at this symposium show the effectiveness of performing psychoeducational interventions from diverse fields (educational, health and/or community) in order to support families with different support needs and that result in the promotion of necessary skills for positive parenting.
Short CV
PhD in Psychology and Associate Professor in the Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of Seville. Director of the official Master's Degree in Family Intervention and Mediation at the University of Seville.
She has been a member since its creation of the Development and education processes in family and school contexts research group. For over two decades, she has taken part in many national and international research projects linked to the study of the family context and its influence on child development. As well as carrying out basic research projects, her research activity has been characterized by its applied nature, and she has participated in preparing, implementing and evaluating various programmes to promote Positive Parenting, especially for families at psycho-social risk. The author of several evidence-based family support programmes currently carried out in educational, health and social departments, she has had numerous scientific articles published in specialized journals, as well as her extensive experience in institutional counselling and teacher training in the area of family intervention. She is currently a member of the Positive Parenting Expert Group appointed by the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, and her group recently designed a Good Practices Guide for this area. Her research activity is complemented by her role as an assessor at the Spanish National Research Agency and as a member of different Editorial Committees for prestigious research journals in the Psychology area.