Educating Children in Safe Environments: Assessment of a program to improve parenting practices among parents with children aged 3-5 years

Introduction. Children’s behavior is influenced by parenting. This study aimed to assess the effect of the Parents Raising Safe Kids (ACT) program on parenting practices among parents with children between 3 and 5 years of age. Method. The study consists of a quasi-experimental design, and it used a sample of 65 parents between the ages of 21 and 43 years, of which 18 constituted the study group and 27 made up the control group. The Parenthood Questionnaire (MPQ) and the Multifactorial Survey of Indicators (MICS) were the instruments used for the assessment before and after the program, respectively. Results. The results reveal that the post-test scores in the experimental group were higher than the pre-test scores, demonstrating the effect of the ACT program at a statistical and practical level in the parenting practices of monitoring, discipline, verbal punishment, communication, and physical punishment (p < 0.05). Discussion and conclusions. The ACT program was able to improve parenting practices for parents with children aged 3-5. Thus, we suggest the implementation of the program analyzed to improve parenting to raise children who demonstrate appropriate behaviors when relating to others.