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Abstract: The difficult economic context of Western countries and sociocultural changes in family structure are increasing the complexity and diversity of parental roles in the accomplishment of everyday tasks. This phenomenon is especially marked in socially and economically disadvantaged areas, which are particularly destabilised by environmental problems. Studies in this field have suggested that parental attitudes and educational practices play a key role in the development of the child. However, these practices remain malleable, and they may oscillate between being risk factors and protective factors. Exploiting this theoretical framework with the goal of reducing the socio-affective and educational risks to children, preventive interventions can be implemented, with the aim of helping parents in their role as educators. The development of parental support programmes, involving efforts to improve parental attitudes and educational practices in a qualitative manner, can thus mediate between disadvantaged socio-economic environment and the behavioural, cognitive and affective development of the child. This article presents exploratory research on this theme, evaluating changes in the attitudes and educational skills of the parents of young children from disadvantaged socio-economic environments following their participation or non-participation in a parental education programme. Fifteen mothers from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds took part in a parental education programme entitled “Being the parent of young children” (EPJE; Terrisse and Pithon, 2008), which used a series of cartoons to address the management of educational problems. This group was compared with a control group of 10 mothers from the same socio-economic environment, matched for age and education level. All the families selected received educational assistance at home (AED) or attended clinics (Service de protection maternelle et infantile; PMI) for children under the age of six years. The two groups were evaluated with the Échelle des Compétences Éducatives Parentales (ECEP; the Parental Educative Skills Scale; Terrisse and Larose, 1999), which explores (a) the “rigidity/flexibility”, “wariness/confidence” dimensions of educational attitudes; (b) “normative/elaborative” and “severity/liberalism” aspects of parental behaviour; (c) the feeling of parental “control” according to an “internality/externality” axis. The experimental group was also evaluated to assess the acquisition of knowledge about child education and degree of satisfaction with the programme. We found that the educational attitudes of the mothers in the experimental group changed significantly more towards greater flexibility than those in the control group and, in general, their educational style evolved more favourably than that of the control group (more elaborative practices, more internalised feelings of control). Similarly, the significant difference in results in tests of knowledge before and after the programme reveals an improvement in the identification and appropriation of educational practices by parents. All the mothers of the experimental group declared that their confidence in their ability to manage the difficulties of their child had definitively increased following the programme. This exploratory study demonstrates the beneficial effects of a parental support programme, although the small size of the sample currently precludes the generalisation of these results. Nevertheless, this preliminary study improves our understanding of the processes occurring within these educational groups, the objective being to develop a feeling of competence in parents, by giving them the means to provide an educational structure favouring a better outcome for their child. This research also opens up new possibilities for considering the cultural characteristics of parents from disadvantaged environments, who often come from very different communities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Family ecology aims at studying the relationship between Man and his immediate environmental surroundings, together with the domestic activities taking place within the family ecosphere, ecological space in all its differing dimensions and then aims at relating these factors to considerations and actions of our future of our ecosystems. For biosocial reasons, the family represents a fundamental ecological unit: genetic and affective links between family members, shared cultural background, social structure, a place where decisions are taken, a place for handing down knowledge and helping young family members to grow... characterised by shifting structures and functions of varying complexity. The family ecosphere is a place in which immediate environmental surroundings and converted habitation spaces are almost permanently created or modified. The family ecosphere is also a cause of larger scale environmental changes. As a part of human ecology, family ecology is a closely linked complement to Industrial ecology. A large range of applications of this knowledge can be envisaged by the numerous socio-economic partners concerned by the family unit in general. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]