Peer led parenting classes can benefit families with disruptive children

Parenting classes can benefit families trying to cope with disruptive children a new study claims.

Published on bmj.com, researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London studied 116 families from Southwark, with children aged between 2 and 11 years of age who needed help managing behaviour issues.

Disruptive behaviour, being aggressive and not doing what parents asked were the most common reasons for children being referred to mental health clinics in the area.

But the stigma and difficulty accessing the right services saw many families failing to get the help they needed.

Instead, the effectiveness of a peer led parenting course running over eight weeks with two hour group sessions each week, was found to be successful in reducing parental stress and resulting in good levels of satisfaction from those attending.