Evaluating the impact of a joint parenting and yoga programme on everyday family life

This report discusses the findings of a bespoke parenting and yoga programme which aimed to address common stressful times during everyday family life.

Parenting is viewed as important for child health and development and yet is perceived to be difficult with many parents seeking support with parenting (Allen, 2011; Welsh Government, 2017).

There is a wealth of parenting programmes available to parents and different programmes incorporate different elements however, to date, there is no known programme which involves both parenting education and yoga. The programme being evaluated in this study involved parenting sessions run by Norland College and yoga sessions run by YOGADOO, a company who run mindfulness and yoga sessions in schools and the community. Nine parents volunteered to attend the programme and had children aged between two and three years. Attendance was on a weekly basis and sessions addressed topics acknowledged to present difficulties for parents with children in the early years: play, sleep, self-care, mealtimes and outings.

Dr Karen McInnes, Norland University of Early Childhood