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      Parent and implementer attitudes on gender-equal caregiving in theory and practice: perspectives on the impact of a community-led parenting empowerment program in rural Kenya and Zambia

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          Abstract

          Background

          Fathers are often perceived to be mainly responsible for the provision of the family's economic needs. However, past studies have demonstrated that fathers’ involvement in parenting has great significance for the child’s holistic growth and development. Few studies have investigated fathers’ roles in the nurturing care of young children, particularly responsive care and stimulation, in sub-Saharan Africa. The study reported here was carried out as part of a larger study that sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the Moments That Matter (MTM) program in improving the nurturing care of young children in rural communities in Zambia and Kenya. The MTM program uses a parenting empowerment approach to promote bonding and interactions between caregivers and their children within the home, focusing on responsive care, early learning, and security and safety so that children reach their full developmental potential. Trained volunteers facilitated monthly primary caregiver support and learning groups and ECD home visits. Fathers were encouraged to participate in the home visits and to attend some of the group meetings on specific topics. The study reported in this paper aimed to establish the impact of the parenting empowerment program in promoting more gender-equal attitudes and practices on parenting among fathers (who were not the primary caregivers).

          Methods

          Qualitative data were collected at three time points (pre-intervention before the implementation began; mid-intervention after 6 months of implementation; and post-intervention, after 24 months). We conducted focused group discussions with primary caregivers (n = 72) and fathers (n = 24) with children below 3 years. In-depth interviews were conducted with ECD Promoters (n = 43) and faith leaders (= 20). We also conducted key informant interviews with the MTM program implementers (n = 8) and government officials (n = 5) involved in the program implementation. We employed thematic analysis to analyse the qualitative data.

          Results

          The findings showed that the MTM program resulted in improved gender-equal parenting attitudes and practices among mothers/other primary caregivers and fathers. Study participants reported that most fathers spent more time playing and interacting with their children and were more involved in household chores due to their participation in the MTM program.

          Conclusion

          The study findings provide evidence for policy formulation and a guide for implementation of policies that can influence changes in perceived gender roles in parenting.

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          Using thematic analysis in psychology

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              Characterising and justifying sample size sufficiency in interview-based studies: systematic analysis of qualitative health research over a 15-year period

              Background Choosing a suitable sample size in qualitative research is an area of conceptual debate and practical uncertainty. That sample size principles, guidelines and tools have been developed to enable researchers to set, and justify the acceptability of, their sample size is an indication that the issue constitutes an important marker of the quality of qualitative research. Nevertheless, research shows that sample size sufficiency reporting is often poor, if not absent, across a range of disciplinary fields. Methods A systematic analysis of single-interview-per-participant designs within three health-related journals from the disciplines of psychology, sociology and medicine, over a 15-year period, was conducted to examine whether and how sample sizes were justified and how sample size was characterised and discussed by authors. Data pertinent to sample size were extracted and analysed using qualitative and quantitative analytic techniques. Results Our findings demonstrate that provision of sample size justifications in qualitative health research is limited; is not contingent on the number of interviews; and relates to the journal of publication. Defence of sample size was most frequently supported across all three journals with reference to the principle of saturation and to pragmatic considerations. Qualitative sample sizes were predominantly – and often without justification – characterised as insufficient (i.e., ‘small’) and discussed in the context of study limitations. Sample size insufficiency was seen to threaten the validity and generalizability of studies’ results, with the latter being frequently conceived in nomothetic terms. Conclusions We recommend, firstly, that qualitative health researchers be more transparent about evaluations of their sample size sufficiency, situating these within broader and more encompassing assessments of data adequacy. Secondly, we invite researchers critically to consider how saturation parameters found in prior methodological studies and sample size community norms might best inform, and apply to, their own project and encourage that data adequacy is best appraised with reference to features that are intrinsic to the study at hand. Finally, those reviewing papers have a vital role in supporting and encouraging transparent study-specific reporting. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12874-018-0594-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                kenato9@gmail.com , kokelo@aphrc.org
                Journal
                BMC Psychol
                BMC Psychol
                BMC Psychology
                BioMed Central (London )
                2050-7283
                27 June 2022
                27 June 2022
                2022
                : 10
                : 162
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.413355.5, ISNI 0000 0001 2221 4219, African Population and Health Research Center, ; Nairobi, Kenya
                [2 ]Episcopal Relief & Development, New York, USA
                [3 ]Zambia Anglican Council Outreach Programmes (ZACOP), Lusaka, Zambia
                [4 ]Anglican Church of Kenya Development Services-Nyanza (ADS-Nyanza), Kisumu, Kenya
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1908-3371
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9066-6065
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0727-6478
                http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4206-9746
                Article
                866
                10.1186/s40359-022-00866-w
                9238051
                35761318
                8322c226-58ec-4173-85b2-e7670d0fdd48
                © The Author(s) 2022

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

                History
                : 19 October 2021
                : 13 June 2022
                Categories
                Research
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2022

                fathers’ roles,fathers’ perceptions,fathers’ practices,responsive care,childcare,stimulation,early learning,and holistic development,early childhood development,parenting

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