María José Rodrigo

University of La Laguna

Good Practices and multi-professional competencies in working with families from a Positive Parenting approach

Participants: Raquel-Amaya Martínez González1; Juan Carlos Martín2; Victoria Hidalgo García2

1University of Oviedo; 2University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Symposium Summary

Introduction. The Positive Parenting approach emanating from the European Council has been booming in Spain since its adoption in 2009, contributing to change the landscape of guidance and support services for children, adolescents and families. This approach highlights that all families can receive support according to their needs. This is based on the prevention and promotion of families’ capacities to develop their autonomy and proper functioning in favour of children's rights. It also emphasizes the need for joint responsibility of the entire society in supporting the positive exercise of parenting. This symposium includes contributions that deal with quality improvement and good practices, as one of the hallmarks of the positive parenting approach. Method. An online tool is presented, the protocol of good practices in positive parenting made by a group of experts from several Spanish universities under the agreement established between the General Directorate for Family and Child Services of the current Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Wellbeing and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces. Results: The positive parenting approach, the protocol of good practices, accessible on the website http://familiasenpositivo.org, its objectives, structure and contents, the mode of implementation and the improvement plan are presented. Some results of its application and a review of the multi-professional competencies required for the realization of good practices are also presented. Discussion: The practical implications of the results presented and their impact on the improvement of professional work with children, adolescents and families are analysed.

The communications presented at this symposium have been developed within the framework of the work developed by EurofamNet.

Short CV

PhD in Psychology at University of Salamanca and Professor of Developmental and Educational Psychology at the University of La Laguna in Tenerife. She is the director of the official interuniversity Master in Family, Social and Community Intervention and Mediation of the University of La Laguna and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canarias. She has published numerous books and book chapters in national publishers (e. g.,  Family and Human Development; Context and Social Development, Family Preservation, Practical Manual of Positive Parenting) and book chapters in internationally renowned publishers such as Kluwer Academic Publishers, Masson, Psychology Press, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge and has participated in numerous national and international conferences. She has been president of the European Association of Developmental Psychology. She participates as a scientific reviewer in 10 international impact journals and she is PI in Spanish National Plan and Canarian Government research projects. She has been a visiting professor at the University of Sussex (UK), Nijmegen (Netherlands), Bologna (Italy), Genoa (Italy), Friburg (Germany), Wisconsin (USA), among others. She has been visiting professor for three years of Dalian University of Technology, China. She has received the distinction of Fellow by the Association for Psychological Science. She is a reviewer of ANEP, the French National Research Agency (ANR), the Israel Science Foundation (ISF), the Portuguese Research Agency (PSF), and the Chilean Research Agency of the Colombian Research Agency. She is an expert of the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces for the elaboration of positive parenting policies and the professionals training. Expert commissioned by the Canary Islands Autonomous Government to assess the situation of children and families in the Canary Islands and develop the Canary Childhood and Family Strategy (2019-2023). Her research topic is the development of evidence-based programmes to promote positive parenting in families at risk and prevent child abuse. She has designed, implemented and evaluated group programmes for parents widely disseminated in Spain and currently applied in Portugal and Brazil. Professor Rodrigo and her team have also developed a web resource for Spanish-speaking parents "Educate Positive" that contains modules for fathers and mothers. Prof. Rodrigo carries out a second line of research on developmental neuroscience focused on a) the study of the neurological, epigenetic and personality bases of maternal insensitivity to children's needs in mothers with negligent behaviours; and b) the study of activated neural networks in adolescents risk making decisions in social contexts.

 

 

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