1. Successful education on parenting skills for
the parents of adolescents in Bangladesh
Muhammad Munir Hussain, MBBS, MDS, Selina Amin, MBBS, MPH,
Hasan Ali, MSS, MBA, and Tahmina Mirza, MBBS, MPH, Plan Bangladesh
Plan International
Methods
Participant View
Plan International, a child-centered community development organization, has been operating in Bangladesh since 1994, helping poor children to access their rights to health, education, economic security and protection.
Plan Bangladesh works in six sub- districts (upazillas) and selected urban slums of Bangladesh, covering seven program areas.
Conduct training workshops involving parents, facilitators, adolescents, and experts;
Develop a pool of master trainers;
Develop a unique training manual for parenting adolescents;
Establish parenting sessions among peer parents in various informal settings, e.g. tea stall, pond side, or at neighbors’ houses; and
Build rapport in the community, raise awareness among adolescents, and provide adolescent-friendly health services.
I have a girl, and at the beginning, I did not let her join the group [BCC sessions on ARH issues] because I thought this was not an issue to be discussed with her. But after receiving the parenting training, I think the adolescent period is a more vulnerable period of life. Now I ask my daughter about her problems and also openly discuss with other neighboring parents.
-A mother sharing her experience in Dhaka city
Parenting and ARH
Lack of supportive parenting skills towards adolescents in Bangladesh contributes to poor adolescent reproductive health (ARH).
Adolescents live within strong family bonds and are dependent on their parents for important development decisions, such as early marriage, early pregnancy, and services for safe motherhood.
Successful parenting thus plays a significant role in improving the reproductive health status of adolescents.
Keys to Success
Integration of parent education into ARH
Involving parents in ARH made a significant contribution towards the success and sustainability of the project.
Motivation of parents
Parents were highly motivated and showed keen interest in receiving
education and discussing adolescent issues.
Increased efforts to involve fathers
Cultural practice dictates that fathers seldom talk with adolescent sons
and typically only provide orders and instructions when they do,
resulting in a communication gap. The intervention aimed to reduce this gap by targeting fathers, a suggestion received in focus groups.
Creation of an enabling environment in the community to address ARH issues
Communities were more willing to discuss culturally sensitive issues.
Establishing referral linkages
Linking to facilities providing adolescent friendly health services bridged the gap between communication and behavior change.
Using a peer education approach
Dissemination of key messages was encouraged among adolescents.
Results
Outputs
Reached 150,000 parents with parenting skills in the first phase of the intervention; and
Motivated and equipped 3,000 peer educators with the skills to conduct parenting sessions.
Outcomes
Parent peer educators gained the skills to influence parents and various other stakeholders, such as community and religious leaders;
Parents are better equipped with the knowledge and skills to discuss sensitive or taboo topics with their adolescent(s);
Parent-adolescent relationships have improved; and
Parents have more open attitudes toward other project interventions, such as adolescents joining BCC sessions, discussing culturally sensitive issues, consulting with counselors, etc.
Project Scope
Background: Five-year project implemented since 2008 to improve ARH through parent-adolescent communication
Project area: 510 marginalized communities of selected rural and urban areas of Bangladesh
Target population: 200,000 adolescents and 300,000 parents from the population of 818,000
Project goal: To help parents acquire necessary communication skills so they can build trust and a friendly relationship with their adolescent children, facilitating a smooth transition from childhood to adolescence.
Project objectives:
To reach 300,000 parents with skills in communicating with adolescents by 2012;
To provide training on parenting skills to 6,000 peer educators by ; and
To develop a manual for training on parenting adolescents.
Recommendations
ARH interventions should give significant emphasis to parenting
adolescents and fostering adolescent awareness.
2) Better parent-adolescent communication should be emphasized,
including father-son relationships, due to its important role in ARH.
3) Education on skills for parenting adolescents should be scaled up.
Project undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)