Playful discipline in a brief attachment‐based parenting program: A dismantling study

Objective The researchers evaluated the effectiveness of an attachment‐based parent education program with a playful approach to child discipline. Background Evaluations of attachment‐based parent education programs have shown robust improvements in parent and child outcomes; however, few attachment‐based programs include a component for child discipline. Aware Parenting is an attachment‐based program that teaches parents a playful approach to discipline. Methods Forty‐six parents in Australia with children aged between 2 and 4 years were randomly allocated to two parenting program groups: Aware Parenting with playful discipline (treatment group) and Aware Parenting without playful discipline (active control). Outcomes were measured with the Parental Efficacy and Empowerment Measure, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Attachment Relationship Inventory—Caregiver Perception (ARI‐CP), and the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well‐Being Scale. The primary analysis was a split‐plot analysis of variance (ANOVA) that analyzed main effects and interactions of time and the program type. Exploratory one‐way ANOVA and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) controlling for baseline were also conducted. Improvements were expected in both groups, but it was anticipated the treatment group would have greater improvements. Results Both groups improved on the parental self‐efficacy; child prosocial behavior; and ambivalent, disorganized, and secure attachment scales. There was a significant interaction for avoidant attachment scores ( p = .004), with a large effect size favoring the treatment group. ANCOVA indicated that ambivalent attachment scores of the treatment group improved significantly ( p = .014) with a large effect size. Conclusion Playful discipline could be an effective option for parents to manage child behavior and improve the parent–child relationship. Implications Future studies are needed to explore the potential benefits of teaching parents to use a playful approach to discipline in parent education programs.