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All children show difficult behaviour sometimes. But For some families, this can develop into
quite a problem, interfering with daily life and causing significant stress.
There are lots of television programmes that show family life, particularly the tricky
bits, and give advice on ways of helping parents bring up their children. Not all of these
are based on anything scientific though. In our parenting and family research group
here at Manchester we work closely with Professor Matt Sanders and his team at the University
of Queensland in Australia who developed the highly regarded Triple P Positive Parenting
Programme. About 8 years ago, ITV ran a series with Triple
P to show how it works. The TV series, Driving Mum and Dad Mad, proved very popular, with
over 5 million viewers. We ran a research study to see whether watching the series changed
parents's behaviour with their own children. It did. Many parents said that their children's
behaviour improved and that they themselves felt happier and less stressed. Footage from
the series, and ideas from the work have gone on to change the way parenting advice is offered
across the world. The triple p materials have reached an estimated
seven million families in 25 countries.