The Public health dogma of evidence-based mental disorders prevention and mental health promotion: The beliefs of French professionals in regard to parenting programs

Abstract

Since a few years, various international public health organizations recommend the worldwide dissemination of evidence-based mental health prevention programs. T his public health ideal, relying on new scientific disciplines, is at the origin of multiple controversies in a number of countries. This article contributes to bring a reflection on the ways in which political experts, researchers and practitioners have integrated these new preventive strategies. More precisely, t he objective is to present and to discuss the results of a qualitative study concerning French professionals’ representations and theoretical perspectives with regards to evidence-based parenting programs. For that matter, v arious ethnographical inquiries and semi-structured interviews were realized. The results demonstrate three ways to conceive parenting support, themselves attached to distinct anthropological, socio-political and interventional models.