Comparison of the Effectiveness of Positive Parenting Program and Mindfulness Parenting Education on Social Development in Preschool Children

Parenting is a difficult but enjoyable process. When aligned with children's developmental process, parenting reduces problems and empowers children for better behavioral and emotional functioning. Therefore, this study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of positive parenting program (Triple P) and mindful parenting (MP) on the level of preschool children’s social development.

This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest, control design and a 3-month follow-up. The study population included all mothers of preschool children in Shiraz in the educational year 2019-2020. The sample consisted of 45 mothers who were selected using convenience sampling and were then randomly assigned to two experimental groups, each including 15 mothers. First, the Children's Communication Checklist (CCC) (Bishop, 1998) was completed by the children’s mothers. Then, the first experimental group participated in Triple P sessions (Sanders et al., 2005) and the second experimental group took part in mindful parenting sessions (Duncan, Coatsworth, Gayles, Geier, & Greenberg‎, 2015). The control group did not receive any treatment. Subsequently, the aforementioned questionnaire was completed again by the mothers in the three groups. The collected data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA in SPSS software.

The results indicated that Triple P had a more positive effect on children’s social development level (p < 0.05) and the components of suitable initiation (P < 0.01) and social skills (p < 0.001) than MP training. Furthermore, the effectiveness of MP training on the children’s ability for suitable communication (P < 0.01) was greater than the Triple P.

Therefore, positive parenting and MP are both good ways to promote a child's social development. Thus, positive parenting program can be used as the preferred method for mothers to increase the social development of their children.