ABSTRACT

At-risk families and caregivers from low-and middle-income countries have been shown to benefit from parenting interventions. But there is limited evidence on the impact of interventions on adolescent parents. This paper considers the effects of a parenting programme targeting adolescent parents in South Africa, emphasising parenting and adolescent well-being outcomes. Secondly, it explores whether such an intervention can influence adolescent depression and parenting behaviours. Using a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design, data was collected over 2015–2017 from 113 adolescent parents (aged 12–22 years) who attended three secondary schools in Cape Town. Adolescents (biological and non-biological parents) were assigned to intervention (parenting programme participation) and control groups. They completed assessments on parenting, adolescent well-being, and social context at three time-points. Inter-group, and time-period differences were examined, and analyses on whether depression moderates programme effects on outcomes were conducted. At the ten-month follow-up, positive parenting and resilience improved for biological and non-biological parents and in both study groups. For the non-biological intervention group parents, depression rates increased over time. Intervention adolescents with high depression risk showed smaller improvements in supportive parenting than their control group counterparts. Although adolescents increased in positive parenting and resilience, it is unclear whether and how the intervention contributed to these results. As the intervention group included more adolescents at high risk of depression at follow-up, this study highlights the importance of including mental health support in interventions targeting adolescents in LMIC contexts. The study is limited by a small sample size and reliance on self-reported data.

摘要

来自低收入和中等收入国家的高危家庭和照顾者已被证明可以从育儿干预中受益。但关于干预措施对青少年父母的影响的证据有限。本文考虑了针对南非青少年父母的育儿计划的影响，强调了育儿和青少年福祉的结果。其次，它探讨了这种干预是否会影响青少年抑郁和育儿行为。使用准实验性纵向设计，从 2015 年至 2017 年收集了来自开普敦三所中学的 113 名青少年父母（年龄 12 至 22 岁）的数据。青少年（生物和非生物父母）被分配到干预组（参与育儿计划）和对照组。他们完成了育儿评估，三个时间点的青少年幸福感和社会背景。检查了组间和时间段差异，并分析了抑郁症是否会减轻计划对结果的影响。在十个月的随访中，亲生父母和非亲生父母以及两个研究组的积极养育和复原力都得到了改善。对于非生物干预组的父母，抑郁率随着时间的推移而增加。与对照组相比，具有高抑郁风险的干预青少年在支持性养育方面的改善较小。尽管青少年的积极养育和复原力有所提高，但尚不清楚干预是否以及如何促成这些结果。由于干预组在随访中包括更多处于抑郁高风险的青少年，本研究强调了将心理健康支持纳入针对中低收入国家青少年的干预措施的重要性。该研究受到样本量小和依赖自我报告数据的限制。