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This study examined the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of MaPaChat, a parent support intervention delivered using Viber group chat to caregivers in the Philippines during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty caregivers of children aged 4-17 from predominantly low-income households participated in a culturally adapted version of the Parenting for Lifelong Health ParentChat programme. Feasibility was assessed by enrolment, attendance, and dropout rates. Semi-structured interviews with caregivers and programme facilitators explored programme acceptability. A single-group pre-post design was used to explore changes in child maltreatment, positive parenting, parenting stress, and other secondary outcomes. The mean attendance rate was 82% and the dropout rate was 10%. Caregivers and facilitators found the programme helpful in enhancing parenting knowledge and skills and were satisfied with the programme delivery using Viber group chat but also reported experiencing technological challenges. Pre-post comparisons suggested that the intervention has potential in reducing physical and emotional abuse and associated risk factors. The findings suggest that a parenting intervention delivered over digital group chat by trained community service providers may be a feasible and acceptable way to support caregivers in low-resource settings., (© 2024 International Union of Psychological Science.)

Religion is recognized as an influential social institution in the Philippines, yet religiosity and spirituality are rarely studied in the context of Filipino family and parent-child relationships. We examine the direct associations of religiosity and spirituality with the psychological well-being and parenting behaviors of 115 mothers and 83 fathers residing in urban neighborhoods in the Philippines. Participants completed orally administered questionnaires on engagement in religious activities, spiritual beliefs, hope, psychological distress, warmth, and harsh parenting. Analyses using structural equation modeling showed that engagement in religious activities was significantly associated with the higher levels of hope and less frequent harsh parenting. In addition, parental warmth had a stronger positive association with spiritual beliefs than with engagement in religious activities. Neither religious activity engagement nor spiritual beliefs were significantly associated with psychological distress. We discuss shared and distinct aspects of religiosity and spirituality that may explain their associations with positive parenting outcomes, and highlight the potential benefits of spiritual beliefs and experiences within the Filipino family context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

This study examines within-person and cross-person relations between depressive symptoms, harsh parenting, and parental rejection in low-income Filipino mothers and fathers of adolescents using an actor-partner interdependence model (APIM). Mother and father dyads (N = 81, M age  = 43.48, SD = 8.66) recruited from urban neighborhoods in the Philippines completed orally administered questionnaires on depressive symptoms, harsh parenting, and rejection. Results showed that mothers' scores and fathers' scores on depressive symptoms did not significantly differ and that mothers scored significantly higher than fathers on harsh parenting and rejection. Dyadic analyses using the APIM showed that the actor effect of depressive symptoms on harsh parenting was statistically significant for fathers only and that the actor effects of depressive symptoms on rejection were statistically significant for both mothers and fathers. No partner effects on harsh parenting and rejection were statistically significant. These findings contribute to the robust evidence linking parental depressive symptoms to negative parenting behaviors and highlight the need to attend to both fathers' psychological health and mothers' psychological health in efforts to reduce harsh and rejecting parenting behaviors among Filipino parents., (© 2020 Family Process Institute.)

Objective: Familism, a cultural value that emphasizes strong family connectedness, has been associated with warm parenting behaviors among fathers and may moderate the effects of stress on parenting. However, few studies have examined familism as a protective factor against household and neighborhood risks. This study examined (a) the relations of poor living conditions and neighborhood disorder to paternal warmth and rejection and (b) familism as a moderator of relations between poor living conditions, neighborhood disorder, and paternal warmth and rejection., Method: Low-income urban Filipino fathers ( N = 84, M age = 44.85, SD = 8.89) completed orally administered questionnaires. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine associations between poor living conditions, neighborhood disorder, familism, warmth, and rejection., Results: Poor living conditions, measured as a composite risk index of housing status, water supply, access to electricity, and food insecurity, were significantly associated with lower levels of warmth. Neighborhood disorder was also significantly associated with greater rejection. Familism was significantly associated with greater warmth, indicating its promotive role in fathers' parenting. Moderation analyses indicate that higher familism was associated with less rejection only at lower levels of risk in living conditions. At higher levels of risk, the association of familism with rejection was nonsignificant., Conclusions: The protective function of familism in parenting may have limits at high levels of risk. Interventions for low-income Filipino fathers may need to address reduction of household and neighborhood stressors along with strengthening family-level protective factors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Using two waves of data, this study examined relations among neighborhood and housing disorder, parents' psychological distress, parenting behaviors, and subsequent youth adjustment in a low-income, multiethnic sample of families with children aged 6-16. Results supported the hypothesized indirect relation between disorder and youth outcomes via parenting processes. Higher levels of neighborhood and housing disorder were associated with higher levels of parents' psychological distress, which was in turn related to more frequent use of harsh and inconsistent discipline strategies and lower parental warmth. More frequent use of harsh and inconsistent discipline was associated with higher levels of youth internalizing and externalizing behaviors 3 years later. Housing disorder contributed more strongly to parents' psychological distress than neighborhood disorder, whereas neighborhood disorder contributed more strongly to youth externalizing behaviors compared to housing disorder. Multiple-group analyses showed that the patterns of relations were similar for younger and older children, and for girls and boys.

This study examines the feasibility of a culturally adapted parenting intervention (MaPa Teens) within the national cash transfer system to reduce violence against adolescents, the first such program in the Philippines. Thirty caregiver-adolescent dyads who were beneficiaries of a government conditional cash transfer program participated in a pilot of a locally adapted version of the Parenting for Lifelong Health for Parents and Teens program. Primary outcomes of reducing child maltreatment and associated risk factors were evaluated using a single-group, pre-post design. Focus group discussions explored the perceptions of participants and facilitators regarding program acceptability and feasibility. Significant and moderate reductions were reported in overall child maltreatment and physical abuse (caregiver and adolescent reports) and in emotional abuse (adolescent report). There were significant reductions in neglect, attitudes supporting punishment, parenting stress, parental and adolescent depressive symptoms, parent-child relationship problems, and significant improvement in parental efficacy in managing child behavior. Adolescents reported reduced behavior problems, risk behavior, and witnessing of family violence. Participants valued learning skills using a collaborative approach, sustained their engagement between sessions through text messages and phone calls, and appreciated the close interaction with caring and skilled facilitators. Program areas of improvement included addressing barriers to attendance, increasing adolescent engagement, and revising the sexual health module. The study provides preliminary support for the effectiveness and feasibility of the program in reducing violence against Filipino adolescents. Findings suggest potential adaptations of the program, and that investment in more rigorous testing using a randomized controlled trial would be worthwhile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines (a) the degree of agreement between mother-reported child community violence exposure and children's self-reports and whether agreement changes over time; (b) whether child gender is associated with mother-child agreement; and (c) whether greater mother-child agreement is concurrently and longitudinally associated with children's psychological well-being. We conducted secondary data analyses using longitudinal data with a socioeconomically diverse sample of 287 Latino adolescents (M ageW2 = 11.2, 47% girls) and their mothers (M ageW1 = 35.3) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Mother-child agreement about nonexposure to violence was high. However, for violence-exposed children, mothers overestimated exposure in early adolescence and underestimated it in middle adolescence. Mothers had higher violence agreement scores with daughters than with sons. Greater mother-child agreement about witnessing community violence in early adolescence was associated with lower externalizing problems in early and middle adolescence. Agreement about children's victimization was only concurrently associated with lower externalizing and internalizing behaviors in early adolescence. Developmental changes in adolescent disclosure and parental knowledge of children's community violence may provide an important point of intervention for addressing the psychological sequelae of violence exposure in early adolescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]