Mothers as parents, fathers as coparents: A mixed methods evaluation of parent support programmes from the perspectives of mothers, fathers, coparents, and project workers.

The current research evaluated the Parents as First Teachers parenting programme based on four stakeholder groups' perspectives: mothers, fathers, coparents, and programme project workers. Stakeholders' views were explored with regard to parenting practices, process of change, family roles, family relationships, community services, and programme participation. This bottom-up approach is in contrast to previous evaluation research, which has often been top-down, placing the evaluators as experts. Furthermore previous research has failed to consider perspectives beyond those of mothers. This evaluation was conducted in three phases using an exploratory mixed-methods design informed by the natural history approach and action research. Phase 1 of the research began in the field, where interviews were conducted with members of all four stakeholder groups. These interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers, and Larkin, 2009) which focuses on participants' unique experiences. In phase 2, bespoke questionnaires were developed from phase 1 findings and combined with previously validated measures of programme evaluation and parenting practices. These were distributed widely to each group of stakeholders and were initially analysed to explore underlying regions within the data using multi-dimensional scaling (Kruskal and Wish, 1978). Parametric and non-parametric correlations were conducted to explore the relationship between the findings of each stakeholder group. In phase 3, all stakeholder groups were invited to participate in focus groups. The data were subject to thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) and used to validate and expand findings from the previous phases. Stakeholder groups' findings from each phase are presented in separate chapters, then compared for similarities and differences. Findings suggest that mothers are often the gateway to fathers' programme participation and the research indicates tire importance of considering parenting and parenting programmes in context to address families' unique needs. Implications are discussed with reference to practice, policy, and training of parenting programmes