Parental Behaviour Research Articles

A randomized waitlist control trial of the Make the Connection® online program for caregivers of infants and young children: Study protocol.

A positive child-caregiver relationship is one of the strongest determinants of child health and development, yet many caregivers report challenges in establishing a positive relationship with their child. For over 20 years, Make the Connection® (MTC), an evidence-based parenting program, has been delivered in-person by child-caring professionals to over 120,000 parents to improve positive parenting behaviours and attitudes. Recently, MTC has been adapted into a 'direct to caregiver' online platform to increase scalability and accessibility. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the online modality of MTC in increasing parenting knowledge, attitudes, and the perceived relationship with their child, and to understand barriers and facilitators to its access. Two hundred caregivers with children aged 0-3 years old will be recruited through Public Health agencies in Ontario, Canada. Participants will be randomly placed in the intervention or waitlist control group. Both groups will complete a battery of questionnaires at study enrolment and 8 weeks later. The intervention group will receive the MTC online program during the 8-week period, while the waitlist group will receive the program after an 8-week wait. The study questionnaires will address demographic information, caregivers' relational attitudes towards their infant, self-competence in their caregiver role, depression, and caregiver stress, as well as caregivers' and infants' emotion regulation. Results from this study will add critical knowledge to the development, scaling, and roll out of the MTC online program, thus increasing its capacity to reach a greater number of families. The study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov on 15 March 2023 (NCT05770414).

Study examines parent–child families’ interactions with exhibits in natural history museum

ABSTRACT This study aims to examine how parent–child families interact with exhibits while visiting a natural history museum. The study included 71 parent–child families with children aged 3–12 visiting the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History. Interaction with exhibits was recorded employing tracking and timing, and discourse analysis using video and observation recording forms. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were used to examine the data. The results revealed physical engagement in parent–child family interactions with exhibits and between family members, with high-frequency verbal interactions among members. Families have diverse preferences for different exhibits, with interactive question-and-answer displays being the most popular. The higher the relevance of the exhibit to the visitor’s life, the stronger the interest displayed by the parent–child family. The behaviour of parent–child families is influenced by three factors: exhibits, visitors and space layout, resulting in different visiting routes and patterns.

Вивірка (Sciurus vulgaris) в околицях Києва 100 років тому (1924–1927)

The adapted translation of the article ‘On the red squirrel’ (Danylovych 1925), which was published in the journal of the All-Russian Industrial Cooperative Union of Hunters (the antecedent of the USHF, now known in Ukraine), is presented. The article contains valuable data on the distribution of the species in suburban green areas that have been preserved to this day (in particular, Pushcha-Vodytsia and Holosiivskyi Forest), important information on nest building, nest location and reproduction, and features of parental behaviour. The autumn aggregations of squirrels in feeding grounds are also considered. The morphological features (morphometry, colouration details) of the squirrels are presented. Data on the currently known museum specimens collected by the author are presented.

Dimensions of young children's toothbrushing resistance: A qualitative content analysis of discussions on the online parenting forum Mumsnet.

Young children's resistant behaviour is a barrier to parental-supervised brushing. Discussions on online parenting forums offer an insight into parental experiences, behaviour and attitudes. Analysing these discussions also demonstrates how dental advice is represented and potentially resisted. To analyse how young children's toothbrushing resistance is discussed on an online parenting forum. Qualitative content analysis of threads on toothbrushing resistance retrieved from the UK parenting forum Mumsnet. A search was carried out on Mumsnet in April 2022. Overall, 204 relevant threads were identified and analysed. A coding frame was developed. Posters interacted by discussing their experiences of resistance, asking for advice, making suggestions and being both supportive and critical. Thirty-seven strategies for addressing resistance were identified. Discussions reflected attitudes and concerns relating to young children and toothbrushing resistance, including the idea brushing should be 'non-negotiable'. A key issue was the acceptability of physical force or restraint to achieve adequate brushing. Posters invoked dental authority to support their views. Understanding how toothbrushing resistance is discussed on a parenting forum helps establish what information and advice is shared, and highlights attitudes and concerns that shape how this problem is approached.

The price of addiction: Pakistani children paying the cost of tobacco use with their temperament.

Madam, Tobacco smoking is a significant public health concern and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 942 million men and 175 million women aged 15 or older smoke tobacco and more than seven million people per annum die due to tobacco usage. In Pakistan, the prevalence of tobacco smoking is reported to be 13.4%, according to the NDSP survey (1) Research has shown that exposure to second and third-hand smoke can adversely effect children’s temperament and neurobehavioral outcomes. For instance, a study using the 2007 NSCH found that children exposed to second or third-hand smoke are at a 50% increased risk of developing neurobehavioral disorders such as ADHD or learning disabilities (2). Furthermore, E. Melinda et al. reported that exposure to tobacco smoke in children led to a statistically significant increase in developmental delay along with depression, intellectual learning and speech disabilities among others. (3) Childhood temperament has also been found to significantly impact adult temperament, as demonstrated by a cohort study that followed children from 3 years onwards to 26 years of age. Children classified as under-controlled at age 3 went on to display irritable, impulsive, emotionally labile, and unpredictable personality traits as adults. Similar correlations were found in children labelled as inhibited. Other temperament groups such as confident, reserved, and well-adjusted did not show significant personality profile changes, but a noticeable continuity was observed in each group (4). To decrease children's exposure to tobacco, parental awareness campaigns may be helpful. An RCT by Viki Myers et al. found that educating parents exploratively about tobacco exposure led to changes in parental smoking behaviour (5). So raising parental cognisance, essentially, can decrease neurobehavioral and temperamental issues in children and ultimately, adults. Hence, continually raising awareness about the detrimental effects of exposing children and individuals to tobacco smoking is a key method to reform a healthy environment for children.

Nestlings reared by males are in better body condition than those reared by females in uniparental European Penduline Tits

Conditions encountered during early development affect future survival and reproduction in many bird species. For parents, it is important what body condition the nestlings will achieve at fledging because the condition affects the offspring’s chances to survive and reproduce in the future. However, there is a trade-off between the number of nestlings and their condition. We studied parental behaviour and nestling body condition in uniparental Penduline Tits. In this small passerine, the parental care (incubation and food provisioning) is provided by the female only (49% of clutches in the study population) or the male only (15%). In addition, over a third of clutches are deserted by both parents before the start of incubation. We found that female-only cared clutches had more eggs and nestlings and produced more fledglings than male-only cared clutches. The incubation behaviour and incubation temperature in both types of clutches were similar. The provisioning rate per brood was positively, and the provisioning rate per nestling was negatively, correlated with brood size. Although males cared for smaller clutches, parent sex was not significant in both models of provisioning rates (per brood and per nestling). Moreover, the provisioning rate did not predict the brood’s average nestling condition. However, nestlings reared in broods with male care were in better condition than those reared by females. At the age of 13 days, they had a higher scaled mass index (describes the relative size of energy reserves) and higher haemoglobin levels. The results suggest that the lower productivity of male-only cared clutches, compared to those cared for only by females, may be compensated by the higher condition of nestlings. Information about the recruitment success of broods cared for by males and females will be necessary to test this prediction.

Applications of dialectical behavioural therapy in the perinatal period: A scoping review.

Psychological distress is the most common complication of pregnancy. High-risk concerns can include severe emotion dysregulation, suicidality and self-injury, and health risk behaviours, which bear substantial consequences for caregivers and families. Yet, effective, comprehensive interventions for high-risk caregivers have received limited attention. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is a frontline treatment for such concerns. Accordingly, we conducted a scoping review on the implementation of DBT in the perinatal period. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. Seven studies were identified; study designs included case studies and single-arm pilot trials. Most studies used DBT-informed protocols with significant adaptations, few included multiple components of DBT (i.e. skills group, individual therapy, phone coaching and consultation team), and none met criteria for adherent delivery of all four modes of DBT treatment. Findings suggest DBT-informed interventions may be successfully implemented to treat a range of perinatal mental health symptoms, including borderline personality disorder, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress, and to promote emotion regulation and positive parenting behaviours. While results provide preliminary support for perinatal DBT, this literature is scant and empirical rigour considerably lacking. Clinical implications and future directions are outlined to aid researchers and providers in addressing the ongoing perinatal mental health crisis and developing sorely needed interventions to address the needs of high-risk caregivers.

Does adolescent academic achievement predict future parenting?

AbstractThe effects of academic achievement may extend beyond economic success to influence social functioning, including future parenting. To evaluate whether adolescent academic achievement forecasts future parenting (both positive and negative) and the family home environment of parents. We used prospectively gathered intergenerational data from a population‐based birth cohort born in 1972/1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand, including data from Generation 1 (parents of the birth cohort), the birth cohort (Generation 2; G2), and G2's children (Generation 3). Adolescent academic achievement in G2 was used to predict observed and reported parenting outcomes when offspring (G3) were aged 3 years after controlling for a range of covariates, including G2's adolescent wellbeing, early childhood socioeconomic status (collected from G1), and G2's age at child's birth. We also evaluated 2‐way interactions between academic achievement and G2 parent sex, G3 child behaviour, and G2 adolescent wellbeing. Greater G2 academic achievement, net of controls, predicted more positive and less negative parenting (for mothers only), and a more positive home environment. For the home environment outcome, the effect of adolescent academic achievement was moderated by wellbeing. Adolescent academic achievement may positively influence parenting behaviour and the quality of the home environment.

Comparison of manual, machine learning, and hybrid methods for video annotation to extract parental care data

Measuring parental care behaviour in the wild is central to the study of animal ecology and evolution, but it is often labour‐ and time‐intensive. Efficient open‐source tools have recently emerged that allow animal behaviour to be quantified from videos using machine learning and computer vision techniques, but there is limited appraisal of how these tools perform compared to traditional methods. To gain insight into how different methods perform in extracting data from videos taken in the field, we compared estimates of the parental provisioning rate of wild house sparrows Passer domesticus from video recordings. We compared four methods: manual annotation by experts, crowd‐sourcing, automatic detection based on the open‐source software DeepMeerkat, and a hybrid annotation method. We found that the data collected by the automatic method correlated with expert annotation (r = 0.62) and further show that these data are biologically meaningful as they predict brood survival. However, the automatic method produced largely biased estimates due to the detection of non‐visitation events, while the crowd‐sourcing and hybrid annotation produced estimates that are equivalent to expert annotation. The hybrid annotation method takes approximately 20% of annotation time compared to manual annotation, making it a more cost‐effective way to collect data from videos. We provide a successful case study of how different approaches can be adopted and evaluated with a pre‐existing dataset, to make informed decisions on the best way to process video datasets. If pre‐existing frameworks produce biased estimates, we encourage researchers to adopt a hybrid approach of first using machine learning frameworks to preprocess videos, and then to do manual annotation to save annotation time. As open‐source machine learning tools are becoming more accessible, we encourage biologists to make use of these tools to cut annotation time but still get equally accurate results without the need to develop novel algorithms from scratch.

A follow-up study of the "Lighthouse" mentalization-based parenting program: Mentalization as a mediator of change.

This paper reports follow-up findings for an Mentalization based treatment (MBT) parenting intervention delivered to a community mental health sample. Parents completed the 12-week version of the Lighthouse Parenting Program (LPP) and were evaluated on parenting practices, parent-child relationships, parental mental health indicators, and child problem behaviour levels. We evaluated the extent to which improvements in mentalizing at follow-up mediated changes in parenting, parental adjustment, mental health, and child outcomes. Results included a reduction in parental coercive behaviours and child problems, improved parent-child relationship, and better parental psychological adjustment and mental health. Improvement in self-focused mentalizing were observed. Self-focused mentalizing mediated the changes in most outcomes from baseline to 3-month follow-up. These results provide strong preliminary evidence that the LPP improves parent and child outcomes.

A moderated mediation model of the relationship between adolescent screentime, online privacy cognitions and exposure to online substance marketing

AbstractAdolescent exposure to substance‐related marketing is associated with subsequent substance initiation and progression. The extent to which adolescents are exposed to such content may be associated with adolescent cognitions about digital privacy and media‐specific parenting behaviours. The present study assesses whether the relationship between screentime and online marketing risk is mediated by adolescent digital privacy‐related cognitions and moderated by media‐specific parenting behaviours. Parents and their 10–14‐year‐old adolescents (n = 960) completed an online survey on media parenting techniques and adolescent media use and attitudes. Associations between screentime, Adolescent Cognitions about Online Privacy (ACOP; comprising privacy‐related attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control), TECH parenting (Talk, Educate, Co‐Use, House Rules) and adolescent online marketing exposure were explored via a moderated mediation model. A significant total effect between screentime and online marketing exposure was identified, including an indirect path via ACOP. TECH parenting significantly strengthened ACOP's mediation of the relationship between screentime and online marketing risk. This study indicates that adolescent privacy‐related cognitions may be an important mechanism for future studies related to adolescent online risk behaviour. Implications for child and family social work are discussed.

Risks and representations: Creating consensus narratives about risk with pregnant women involved with child protection systems in Aotearoa New Zealand and Scotland

Social work aspires to empowerment ideals, including taking a ‘non-expert’ position of professional curiosity, and validating the perspectives of people in contact with services. Yet in child protection, social workers are involved in practice that refutes the views and opinions of people and are positioned by their role as an identifier of abuse and risk manager. Social workers and people who are subject to child protection services can be locked into meaning battles regarding the effect of parental behaviour and the representation of risks to children. These negotiations over meanings are especially difficult in the pre and perinatal period, where who controls the representation of the baby's voice or best interests is fundamental to decision outcomes. Using Fricker's concept of ‘testimonial injustice’ as an analytical lens, this article draws on studies in two different contexts: Aotearoa New Zealand and Scotland, to examine the implications of the intense mediation of meanings that affect child protection practice. We find that concepts relating to the importance of mothering, love for children, and extended family relationships were sources of mother's disagreements with professional views of risk, but that through qualified agreement or advocacy from community workers, a shared risk narrative could be constructed.

Barriers to the uptake of eye health services of the children in rural Bangladesh: A community-based cross-sectional survey

Globally, ocular morbidity and disability among children are major public health concerns. This study was designed to explore the health-seeking behaviours of parents in Bangladesh whose children have ocular problems. A cross-sectional mixed method was followed for this study. The method was designed to measure the eye health care-seeking practices of caregivers/parents with children with ocular morbidity in three unions (the lowest administrative geographical area comprising 30,000–50,000 population) of the Raiganj Upazila under the Sirajganj District of Bangladesh. The study period was from January to April 2017. Face-to-face interviews using a semi-structured quantitative questionnaire with the caregivers and KI were conducted among the health service providers during the study period. This was the first community-based study conducted in Bangladesh to find out caregivers’ health-seeking behaviour with identified ocular morbidity. Among 198 confirmed cases of childhood ocular problems, only 87 (43.9%) parents sought health care for their children’s ocular morbidities. Better health-seeking behavior was found among the wealthier families. Proportions were 55.3% and 36% among wealthy and low-income families, respectively. Affluent families sought care from qualified service providers. Educated household heads chose qualified service providers for their children at a higher rate than illiterate household heads. Lack of knowledge, lack of awareness and financial constraints are significant barriers to seeking proper health care. More than half of the caregivers did not seek any eye care services for their children. Socio-demographic factors, and financial constraints play an essential role in the health-seeking behaviour of the parents.

Changes in parental anxiety and intention to demand antibiotics: A longitudinal study among parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Assessing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on parental anxiety and preferences for antibiotic treatment can help inform antibiotic stewardship strategies. Therefore, this study aimed to examine COVID-19 pandemic-related changes in parental anxiety levels, their intentions to demand antibiotics and frequencies of practising preventative behaviours. This longitudinal quantitative study compared two groups of parents, those from Victoria and Western Australia, who experienced high and low COVID-19 risk, respectively. Participants were recruited through an online panel to complete three waves of surveys between October 2020 and August 2021. Anxiety scores and frequency of preventative behaviours were analysed using mixed-effects tobit regression, considering time, state, and their interaction as fixed effects predictors. Intention to demand antibiotics was modelled using multinomial logistic regression, with time, state, and their interaction as the predictors. The final longitudinal sample comprised 50 participants from Victoria and 51 from Western Australia. Parental anxiety did not significantly change over time for either state. Intention to demand antibiotics was also stable over time within each state; however, participants from Victoria exhibited stronger intentions to demand antibiotics compared to those from Western Australia. Frequencies of parental preventative behaviours declined from Wave 1 to Wave 2 before increasing again in Wave 3, but only for Western Australia. This longitudinal study among Australian parents found stable parental anxiety and intention to demand antibiotics within each state. However, the intention to demand antibiotics and preventative behaviours varied between states as per the COVID-19 risk. Thus, viral pandemics may not affect judicious antibiotic use, though the intention to demand antibiotics may increase in states with high COVID-19 risk. Though parental anxiety may not impact antibiotic stewardship during viral respiratory illness outbreaks, tailored messaging to maintain appropriate antibiotic use may be necessary, especially when the disease risk is high.

Parent’s awareness of, and influence on, their 14–17-year-old child’s vaping and smoking behaviours; an analysis of 3242 parent–child pairs in Australia

BackgroundVaping by young people in Australia is a rapidly emerging public health issue. Evidence shows that parental behaviours and attitudes can play a key role in influencing adolescent behaviours. Considering the health harms of vaping and evidence that it can be a gateway to tobacco smoking for never-smokers, it is important to understand whether parents’ smoking and vaping behaviours influence their teenage children’s smoking and vaping behaviours. MethodsOnline cross-sectional surveys as part of the Generation Vape study, conducted in Australia in 2021/2022, were used to assess parents' influence on, and awareness of, one of their 14–17-year-old child’s vaping and smoking behaviours. Participants were 3242 parents and 3242 14–17-year-old teenage children. ResultsThe risk of vaping and smoking uptake among 14–17-year-old teenagers was 42% (p = 0.003) and 97% (p < 0.001) higher, respectively, if their parent was an ever-vaper. The risk of vaping and smoking uptake among teenagers was 81% (p < 0.001) and 159% (p < 0.001) higher, respectively, if their parent was an ever-smoker. Parents of teenagers who have not vaped were considerably better at correctly predicting this (97% correct) than parents of teenagers who have vaped (70% correct). Compared to parents, teenagers tended to have less agreement with statements suggesting vaping is unsafe or harmful, and more agreement with statements suggesting vaping is relatively safe. ConclusionsParental smoking and vaping behaviours are associated with those of their children. Hence, it is important that both tobacco and vaping control policies and interventions are designed to influence behaviours of all demographics, consistent with the evidence.

The Interplay of Parental Financial Behaviour and Financial Literacy and The Moderating Effects of Parental Income

Purpose: The moderating effect of parental income on parental financial behaviour and financial literacy is increasingly becoming important. The objective of this study was to determine whether the relationship between parental financial behaviour and financial literacy of young adults is moderated by parental income. Design/methodology/approach: Financial literacy was measured through financial knowledge, financial behaviour, financial attitudes, and financial decision-making. Quantitative research approach was adopted for this study. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data among young adults in South Africa. Moderated regression analysis was used to analyse data. Four hypotheses were tested. Findings: The results showed that Parental income moderated the relationship of Parental financial behaviour with financial behaviour, financial attitude, and financial decision-making. Furthermore, the results indicated that parental income did not moderate the relationship of Parental financial behaviour and financial knowledge. Therefore, the overall results indicated that the relationship between parental financial behaviour and financial literacy is moderated by parental income. Research limitations/implications: Due to the low levels of general literacy among the respondents, which negatively affected data collection; some young adults did not understand the questionnaire and withdrew from participating in the study. Furthermore, even though confidentiality and anonymity were guaranteed, respondents were reluctant to participate in the study. They feared exposing their financial position and displayed a lack of trust. Originality/value: This study is amongst the first to investigate whether the relationship between parental financial behaviour and financial literacy is moderated by parental income. This study concluded by providing recommendations and suggestions for future research.

Parental presence, participation, and engagement in paediatric hospital care: A conceptual delineation.

To delineate between the concepts of parental presence, participation, and engagement in paediatric hospital care. The concepts' uses in the literature were analysed to determine attributes, influences, and relationships. Delineations of each concept are established and conceptual definitions are proposed following Morses' methods. MEDLINE (PubMed); CINAHL, PsycINFO, Sociology Source Ultimate (EBSCOhost); Embase, Scopus (Elsevier); Google Scholar. Search dates October 2021, February 2023. Multinational publications dated 1991-2023 revealed these concepts represent a range of parental behaviours, beliefs, and actions, which are not always perceptible to nurses, but which are important in family-integrated care delivery. Parental presence is the state of a parent being physically and/or emotionally with their child. Parental participation reflects parents' performing caregiving activities with or without nurses. Parental engagement is a parents' state of emotional involvement in their child's health and the ways they act on their child's behalf. These concepts' manifestations are important to parental role attainment but may be inadequately understood and considered by healthcare providers. Nurses have influence over parents' parental presence, participation, and engagement in their child's care but need support from healthcare institutions to ensure equitable family-integrated care delivery. Problem: Lack of clear definition among these concepts results in incomplete and at times inequitable family-integrated care delivery. Parental presence is an antecedent to parental participation, and parental presence and participation are elements of parental engagement. The concepts interact to influence one another. Hospitalized children, their families, nurses, and researchers will benefit through a better understanding of the concepts' attributes, interactions, and implications for enhanced family-integrated care delivery.

How perceived mindful parenting prevents maladaptive academic behaviours: the mediating roles of insecure attachment and children mindfulness

The benefits of mindfulness have been noticed in academics, but whether and how perceived mindful parenting prevents maladaptive academic behaviours (e.g. rigid persistence, self-handicapping, and compulsive learning behaviour) have rarely been discussed. Therefore, a model of perceived mindful parenting, insecure attachment, children mindfulness, and maladaptive academic behaviours (a PAMB model) was constructed to address the issues. The participants were 739 junior high school students and structural equation modelling was used. The results were as follows: (a) The PAMB model fitted the observed data well. (b) Perceived mindful parenting negatively predicted maladaptive academic behaviours by promoting children mindfulness. (c) Insecure attachment and children mindfulness mediated in sequence the relation between perceived mindful parenting and maladaptive academic behaviours.

It takes two: The relative contributions of parent versus child-led regulatory behaviours on toddler vaccination pain.

Past research has established the important role of parent soothing in early childhood pain management. However, limited research has assessed children's own emerging emotion regulation strategies to reduce their pain during vaccination. The purpose of the current study was to understand the relative contributions of child-led emotion-regulation behaviours over and above parent regulatory behaviours and pre-needle distress. Toddler-caregiver dyads were videotaped at their 12- and/or 18-month vaccinations. Videos were coded for pain-related behavioural distress, child-led regulatory behaviours (disengagement of attention, parent-focused behaviours, and physical self-soothing), and parent regulatory/soothing behaviours (distraction, physical comfort, rocking, verbal reassurance). Pre-needle distress, followed by parent regulatory behaviours, followed by child regulatory behaviours were used as hierarchical predictors of pain regulation. Two sets of models were estimated at each age, by incorporating parent and child regulatory behaviours at 1 min and 2 min post-needle, separately. At both ages, child-led parent-focused behaviours predicted less regulation. At 18 months, parent soothing behaviours (e.g. distraction, verbal reassurance, rocking) played a stronger role in regulation, however; the only behaviour that increased regulation was rocking. Measuring both parent and child regulatory behaviours was important for fully understanding pain-related distress regulation. Toddlers' use of parent-focused regulatory behaviours (e.g. proximity seeking) suggests that they signal to their parent directly when they are struggling to regulate post-needle. The only parent behaviour that supported this regulation was rocking at 18 months, suggesting a greater need to understand the sensitivity of parent behaviours post-needle. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine both parent and child regulatory behaviours following vaccination at different stages in toddlerhood. This investigation allows a deeper understanding of the dyadic nature of early childhood vaccination, as well as the evolving role of the parent through toddlerhood. Importantly, findings suggest that toddlers do not simply wait for their parents to respond to their pain post-needle and provide clear signals to show their need of support in regulation.

Enhancing education service outcomes through value co-creation

PurposeThe purpose is to investigate the impact of the value co-creation behaviour of parents on a set of education service outcomes, including perceived school reputation, parent satisfaction and teacher competence.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey of 932 parents of primary and secondary school children was conducted. Canonical correlation analysis (general linear model) was used to test the impact of parental involvement in value co-creation behaviour on education service outcomes.FindingsValue co-creation behaviour has a positive impact on education service outcomes, but the impact differs depending on the type of behaviour. Parent citizenship behaviour positively affects satisfaction, school reputation and perceived teacher competence. However, parent participation behaviour positively affects satisfaction with the school and perceived teacher competence.Research limitations/implicationsThe study used self-reported data from parents, which may be biased and subject to errors. Future research could use more objective measures such as administrative records or teacher reports. The study's results are limited to one country, highlighting the need for further research in multiple countries.Practical implicationsThe study's findings have implications for education service providers in terms of the importance of supporting parental involvement in their child's school life via value co-creation behaviour.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the service dominant logic, value co-creation theory and educational marketing literature by providing the detailed empirical evidences of parents' value co-creation outcomes in the context of the primary and secondary schools.