A pilot study of an adapted parenting programme for Roma communities in Montenegro

A pilot study of an adapted parenting programme for Roma communities in Montenegro | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article A pilot study of an adapted parenting programme for Roma communities in Montenegro Judy hutchings, ida Ferdinandi, biljana maslovaric, Milica Jelic, and 2 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7870226/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The Roma population in Montenegro are significantly disadvantaged and marginalised. Lack of education among Roma parents affects their parenting and the overall development of their children. Their children are less likely to attend pre-school and experience significant challenges within the education system with many dropping out and having poor literacy rates. the Government of Montenegro, with the support of UNICEF, developed an action plan to address the needs of this population. The plan included devising a programme targeting Roma parents. UNICEF had been embedding the 12 session evidence-based group Parenting for Lifelong Health programme for parents of children aged 2 – 9 across Montenegro for 7 years, with good results, and the programmed had obtained endorsement from several Government departments. This paper describes the adaptation of the programme, based on a small pilot with Roma parents and its delivery in four groups to 30 parents, including 22 Roma parents. Adaptations are described, included simplifying the content and reducing session length. Pre- and post-course questionnaires on parenting child behaviour and parental mental wellbeing were collected and interviews and focus groups were used to collect post-course quantitative and qualitative data. Baseline data showed that over 75% of parents had only primary school attendance and were reporting high levels of dysfunctional parenting practices. Programme attendance was excellent and the programme was highly rated. Results showed good effects with reductions in dysfunctional parenting practices with large effects on the total score and overreactive subscale and smaller effects on the laxness and verbosity subscales. However all of total parenting score remained above the clinical cut-off for the scale. Reductions were also reported in child behaviour problems. There were no changes in reported parental wellbeing, for which parenting would have been only one contributor. The most significant positive behavioural changes reported in these interviews included increased obedience, responsibility, sociability, socialization, and initiative among children. For themselves respondents reported that the programme improved their communication with their children but also that they would like it to be longer. The results demonstrated, even withing the short trial timeframe of nine months, that recruitment was possible, engagement and retention were excellent and that results were positive in terms of reduced dysfunctional parenting. The trial justifies the further use of this programme, and could potentially be of interest to a number of the other Eastern European countries that also have significant Roma populations. Full Text Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. Conflict of interest Professor Hutchings is a trainer for the PLH-YC programme and receives occasional training funds. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7870226","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":595896935,"identity":"d2fe74db-02e3-4e9a-88fd-c14a53d47bc8","order_by":0,"name":"Judy hutchings","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA/ElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACxgYeEHUARDI+RpYxwKvlAEQLszFRWhgYIFpALDZporQwN/Aek/5Qc0fGnH/5s+qCmjt2/dIHGD/8YDhsjEsLYwNfmsSBY894LGe8Mbs949iz5Jl9CcySPQyHzfD4xUziYMNhHoMbZ9hu87AdTjY4w8AAdOFhGyK0HH9WzPMPrIX5N3FazjeYMfO2HbYDagGFAx6HNfMYW5w5BrKFx1h6Zt/hBMkexjbLHoN0nN43bO8xvFFRc9je4Pzxh58Lvh225+dhPnzjR4W1YQMuLc0wlkQCmEpsADoWb0TKw1n8B8CUPW61o2AUjIJRMFIBAC0cV91PD4kUAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Bangor University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Judy","middleName":"","lastName":"hutchings","suffix":""},{"id":595896937,"identity":"f0fe3157-7233-4750-a1af-af01f4babdbc","order_by":1,"name":"ida Ferdinandi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"UNICEF Montenegro","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"ida","middleName":"","lastName":"Ferdinandi","suffix":""},{"id":595896938,"identity":"1faba3e7-30ed-4fdc-8265-627618184e68","order_by":2,"name":"biljana maslovaric","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"university of Montenegro","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"biljana","middleName":"","lastName":"maslovaric","suffix":""},{"id":595896939,"identity":"95540679-ada4-45bd-a670-a0d9a6ff31c2","order_by":3,"name":"Milica Jelic","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"university of Montenegro","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Milica","middleName":"","lastName":"Jelic","suffix":""},{"id":595896940,"identity":"3c632c94-2dff-4fe3-a33f-f34fc622fefd","order_by":4,"name":"serdjan baftijari","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"university of Montenegro","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"serdjan","middleName":"","lastName":"baftijari","suffix":""},{"id":595896942,"identity":"1858f88b-4ae9-4a8f-89fb-05dd4feb6f3d","order_by":5,"name":"margiad williams","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Bangor University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"margiad","middleName":"","lastName":"williams","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-10-15 16:24:16","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7870226/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7870226/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":103355811,"identity":"922fe997-f6d5-4902-8266-82b1bea26f49","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-24 18:24:58","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":417181,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"RomaPaperManuscriptDraft.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7870226/v1_covered_4eb38e9b-86d1-4b77-9aea-65c3505f96f9.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"Competing interest reported. 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Lack of education among Roma parents affects their parenting and the overall development of their children. Their children are less likely to attend pre-school and experience significant challenges within the education system with many dropping out and having poor literacy rates. the Government of Montenegro, with the support of UNICEF, developed an action plan to address the needs of this population. The plan included devising a programme targeting Roma parents.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUNICEF had been embedding the 12 session evidence-based group Parenting for Lifelong Health programme for parents of children aged 2 – 9 across Montenegro for 7 years, with good results, and the programmed had obtained endorsement from several Government departments. This paper describes the adaptation of the programme, based on a small pilot with Roma parents and its delivery in four groups to 30 parents, including 22 Roma parents.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdaptations are described, included simplifying the content and reducing session length. Pre- and post-course questionnaires on parenting child behaviour and parental mental wellbeing were collected and interviews and focus groups were used to collect post-course quantitative and qualitative data. Baseline data showed that over 75% of parents had only primary school attendance and were reporting high levels of dysfunctional parenting practices.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProgramme attendance was excellent and the programme was highly rated. Results showed good effects with reductions in dysfunctional parenting practices with large effects on the total score and overreactive subscale and smaller effects on the laxness and verbosity subscales. 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