Stories

Hoki ki te Rito-Oranga Whānau, New Zealand

Our relationship based parenting programmes reflect universal principles in local contexts – they’re developed and implemented with the communities themselves.

An example of the effectiveness and acceptability of culturally adapted versions of Mellow Parenting is Hoki ki te Rito-Oranga Whānau, delivered by Ohomairangi Trust in their community setting of South Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand.

The programme made a significant step in increasing appropriate service provision for Māori and Pacific families and reducing barriers to accessing available services in the community.

Read the full study here

 

Parenting programmes have been shown to improve children’s relationships with their parents or caregivers and reduce problem behaviours, however little research has focused on outcomes for indigenous fathers. Ohomairangi Trust, an indigenous Kaupapa Māori focused provider, delivered the programme to over 30 Māori and Pacific fathers in South Auckland, New Zealand. Fathers from socially disadvantaged areas, with children aged between 0-5 years, where relationship difficulties along with child behaviour difficulties were present. A culturally adapted version of the Mellow Parenting Programme – Hoki ki te Rito – Oranga Whānau for Māori parents was delivered.

Fathers attending Hoki ki te Rito-Oranga Whānau parenting programme reported a significant increase in their own well being, their ability to cope with their parenting role and their children’s behaviours, their feelings of self esteem and adequacy. Reductions in unwanted problematic behaviours from their children, and an increase in children’s social skills were also found. The programme also led to greater movement from the clinical range to the non-clinical range for mean child behaviour scores on all measures. Qualitative data showed extremely positive responses to the programme resources, content and process.

 

Quotes

“Before (coming to this course) I used to beat myself up – oh I’m struggling, got no job, got no future, that was the outlook before… it has helped me refocus… I’m helping my kids on a daily basis, I get them of to school, I feed them, I clean them, I love them, you know, only through the conversations that we have here and sharing our life stories and experiences was I able to reconnect with those things and try and formulate a plan to move forward…I had to come here for people to say “look bro, you are doing all these things and you don’t even realise”, and so that was a huge growth thing for me, giving myself a pat on the back, recognizing I’m putting in some good work,…and take this into the future with my kids”

(Oct 2011)

“Like being a father – I never thought it could be this easy you know, I grew up in a household where everything was controlled by violence and I thought to myself man, that’s what being a father is about, its not much fun, but now, after thirteen weeks of this course I’ve had more fun than in my childhood, just trying out new things. It’s a whole new learning curve like learning I’m a son again, being a child again, but like having to be the parent too, so I am teaching them while I’m learning myself. Yeah I wish my father had help.”

(May 2012)