Parents Empowering Parents (PEP) Program: understanding its impact on the bleeding disorders community

The Parents Empowering Parents (PEP) Program gives parents tools to improve the lives of children with bleeding disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of PEP. Eleven haemophilia treatment centres (HTC) participated in the study and 301 participants completed the survey. Parents who did not attend PEP were divided into three groups based on their reasons for not attending: (Not Offered, Bad Time and Don't Need). Those who attended (Attended) PEP reported less use of yelling, spanking, slapping and giving-in after attending PEP. The Not Offered group used Praising (P = 0.016), Natural Consequences (P = 0.002), Being Consistent (P = 0.016), Ignoring (P = 0.006), Distracting (P = 0.002), Setting Limits (P = 0.009), Giving Choices (P = 0.049), Being Consistent (P = 0.014) and Distracting (P = 0.019) less than all other groups. The Bad Time group used Time-Out (P = 0.037) and Ignoring (P = 0.019) more than the other groups that did not attend PEP. The Don't Need group used Spanking (P = 0.008) and Time-Out (P = 0.003) and Yelling (P = 0.014) less than all other groups. Attending PEP seems to decrease the use of negative parenting techniques. Those who reported PEP was not offered to them used positive parenting techniques less than all other participants.