What is this?

Mellow Parenting (MP) is a programme designed to promote sensitive parenting. It aims to improve parental-child attachment and address parental mental health as well as developing better relationships between parent and child.

How is it meant to work?

Mellow Parenting is a group-based approach designed to support families who have additional health and social care needs who are experiencing relationship challenges with their young children. The parental risk factors that might lead to these needs include exposure to relational violence, mental ill health, problem drug use, adolescent parenthood or social deprivation.

It is a flexible programme based on principles from attachment theory, adult education and behavioural psychology that also offers practical help (for instance help with transport and childcare). Mellow Parenting has also been modified for different groups, such as fathers (‘Mellow Dads’) and babies (‘Mellow Babies’).

Most studies included focused on the main Mellow Parenting intervention (with children aged 1-4), but two focused on Mellow Babies (for children under one year old).

What are the evaluated outcomes?

• Parental mental health
• Child behaviour

How effective is it?

Parental mental health

Overall, Mellow Parenting tended to show a positive effect on parental mental health. This is based on very low strength evidence.

Child behaviour

Overall, Mellow Parenting tended to show a positive effect on child behaviour. This is based on very low strength evidence.

This evidence was considered very low strength as data types were diverse, the studies were not independent of the creators of Mellow Parenting and had very small samples, and there was some methodological bias. It is difficult to draw firm conclusions based on very low strength evidence.

The positive effects should be interpreted as a tentative indication that the intervention may be effective for children and families.

Where has it been studied?

The studies were carried out in Russia, Scotland, New Zealand and Northern Ireland. More evidence from the UK would help us understand how Mellow Parenting works in this context. Existing evidence gives tentative support to the position in the UK that Mellow Parenting meets the NICE guidelines for effective parenting programmes.

Who does it work for?

Specific subgroups have not been identified so far. But the samples for all studies included groups with multiple indicators of developmental risk including social adversity, exposure to interpersonal violence, parental substance misuse, parental mental illness or previous involvement of social services.

One study found that Mellow Parenting was not likely to benefit children with reactive attachment disorder.

The evidence that the benefits of Mellow Parenting are shared between both parents and children is consistent with findings from other attachment-informed programmes such as Incredible Years. It is thought that Mellow Parenting occupies a unique place within these programmes due to its focus on families with substantial difficulties, its time-limited, group-based approach and its flexibility in age range.

When, where and how does it work?

The assumption is that Mellow Parenting has a focus on parental mental health and parental sensitivity and therefore leads to improved psychological development for children.

Current research has shown little explanation to support findings or details of the specific routes to outcomes. Future evaluations of Mellow Parenting and other programmes involving parents and young children would benefit from a clear, standardised set of outcome measures focused on tracking change in parental mental health; indicators of child social, emotional and linguistic development and perhaps parent-infant interaction.

What are the costs and benefits?

There is currently no information on the cost-benefit of Mellow Parenting.

Case study

Walsall Council first implemented Mellow Parenting programmes as part of a four-year Parenting Strategy starting in 2011, which was also partly funded by Public Health. The Mellow Parenting courses are offered as part of the parenting support provided by the Early Help Locality Team.

Mellow Parenting was identified as a specialist parenting offer for families who had social worker involvement and a child aged under five. Initially Walsall only offered Mellow Parenting to mums, but in 2013 they recruited a male practitioner to offer a Mellow Dads group.

It costs between £500-£600 per parent participating in a 14-week Mellow Parenting group programme, most of which is spent on childcare workers and transport for parents. Groups are single sex (either mothers or fathers) and tend to have around 12 participants.

Mellow Parenting practitioners in Walsall attend an intensive three-day training course, and are given a manual about how to deliver the course. Accreditation as a Mellow Practitioner is only given once a practitioner has completed a parent group under supervision, and is given a recommendation by their supervisor. Practitioners are also given three sessions of clinical supervision from a Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

Between November 2013 and July 2014, one Mellow Dads group and four Mellow Mums groups were run in Walsall. All of the participants met one of Walsall’s eligibility criteria – they were affected by substance abuse, poor mental health, domestic abuse, were currently involved with Child Protection services or had a history of having experienced poor parenting themselves.

Walsall Council’s internal evaluation found that between starting and finishing the group, parents reported a reduction in identified problems. 72 per cent of parents experienced a reduction in parenting hassles, 88 per cent experienced reduced depression or stayed in normal ranges, 83 per cent experienced reduced anxiety or stayed in normal ranges, 80 per cent had reduced stress or stayed in normal ranges and 66 per cent reported reduced child problem behaviours. 37 per cent of parents also said they were able to stay calmer and had improved their parenting skills.

This evaluation did not include a comparison group, so it is not possible to make a causal link between these changes and the Mellow Parenting intervention. For the full evaluation please refer to Walsall’s published document.

In summary...

• Mellow Parenting tends to show a positive effect for families at high risk of adverse outcomes
• This effect applies to both outcomes studied: parental mental health and child behaviour
• The evidence is very low strength as most studies have been small and methodologically limited
• More research is needed on how Mellow Parenting might be implemented and how it achieves its outcomes
• We don’t currently know about the costs and benefits of Mellow Parenting programmes so future studies should examine these
• There is tentative support for Mellow Parenting to continue to be recommended in UK national guidelines as an early years intervention for families who have additional health and social care needs.