# Individually Delivered Parenting Program OPPI: Promising Results in Parental Perceptions and Children’s Behavioral Symptoms in Clinical Settings

## TL;DR

A new individually delivered parenting program, OPPI, is well-received by parents and helps reduce children's behavioral symptoms in clinical settings.

## Contribution

Introduces a novel individually delivered parenting program, OPPI, and evaluates its effectiveness and parental perceptions in a clinical setting.

## Key findings

- Parents found the program highly positive, especially the guidance from counselors and practical teaching methods.
- Children's behavioral symptoms significantly decreased from pre- to post-intervention.
- Positive parenting practices were perceived as more useful than limit-setting time-out.

## Abstract

Parenting programs are well-established treatments for children’s behavioral problems. However, engaging parents remains challenging, and a deeper understanding of how parents perceive these programs is needed to tailor them better respond to parents’ needs. This study introduces a novel individually delivered parenting program, OPPI. We investigate parental perceptions of the program’s content and teaching formats included and its preliminary effects on children’s behavioral symptoms. The participants were 61 parents with 45 children attending the intervention at the child psychiatric clinic at Helsinki University Hospital, Finland. Parents filled out questionnaires on family background, child’s symptoms, and their perceptions of the practices and teaching formats in the intervention. Parental overall opinion about the program was highly positive; especially the guidance given by counselors was considered of high quality. Practical teaching methods were perceived by parents as both the easiest and the most useful. Parents perceived most parenting practices as useful and easy to follow. Parents also reported that children’s behavioral symptoms decreased significantly from pre- to post-intervention. Our study provides valuable information on the feasibility of formats and contents in parenting program. This can guide clinicians in focusing treatment more effectively, ultimately enhancing parental engagement and the overall effectiveness of parenting programs.

Parenting programs help children with behavioral problems. However, it is hard to involve parents in these programs, and up to half of the children are left untreated. To get parents involved, we need to better understand their opinions of parenting programs. This study introduces a new individually delivered parenting program, OPPI, developed for families referred to hospitals for their child’s behavioral problems and evaluates parents’ opinions about the advantages and disadvantages of the program format and contents.

Participants comprised 61 parents and their 45 children attending the intervention at the child psychiatric clinic in Helsinki University Hospital. Parents filled out questionnaires on family background, child’s symptoms, and satisfaction and perceptions of the teaching formats and parenting practices included in the intervention.

Parents liked the parenting program and thought that the parenting practices and the teaching formats were useful and easy to follow. Especially, positive parenting practices were perceived as useful and easy, whereas limit-setting time-out was seen as less useful. Children’s behavioral symptoms had diminished by the end of the program.

Our results suggest that an individually delivered OPPI parenting program is well-liked and perceived as useful in teaching parenting practices and reducing child’s behavioral symptoms in families referred to child psychiatric clinics.