DIFI concludes conference on parenting

DOHA: The Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), has concluded its two-day international conference titled ‘Parenting, Child Wellbeing and Development.’

The second day began with a high-level panel discussion on ‘Investing in Parenting Education Programs.’ Participants discussed the need to monitor the performance and development of these programs around the world, as well as the key challenges of scaling such initiatives and the need for expanding them. 

The session was chaired by Wadih Maalouf, Programme Manager, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 

Panelists included Frances Gardner, Professor of Child and Family Psychology at University of Oxford; Ignacio Socias, Director of Communication at International Federation for Family Development; Jamie Lachman, Co-founder, Parenting for Lifelong Health; and Dr. Zulkifli Ismail, Consultant Pediatrician, Chairman, Positive Parenting Program.

Maalouf said: “A child’s growth and development is affected by family, school, and society, but family remains the most important factor in their development – hence the importance of programs that invest in parenting.”
Professor Gardner said: “Evidence suggests that severe parenting can cause deviation, poor school performance, and crime and drug addiction, emphasizing the importance of intervening and providing parental assistance. 

This will enable parents to learn positive parenting skills and a non-violent disciplinary system, while relieving them of stress.” 

She stressed the importance of these programs, and that their cost remains less than the negative effects resulting from poor parenting, while also providing compelling accounts of different parenting programs’ validity and applicability in different countries.

Ignacio Socias explained that the way to achieve a work-family balance is through flexibility and parental cooperation in raising children, saying: “Flexibility is the key to balancing work and family. We must shift from a market aimed at single breadwinner families towards a more flexible one, in which the responsibilities of parenting and maintaining families do not fall mainly on women.”

The panel discussion was followed by two parallel sessions, with the first taking the theme of ‘Parenting Children Living with Disabilities.’ It discussed the challenges faced by parents who support children with special-needs, and the urgent requirement for targeted training to enhance parenting skills so that parents can provide better care for their children. 

The conference concluded with an interactive discussion session, which allowed researchers and academics to exchange experiences and review obstacles to research, and debate their studies on parenting issues while proposing best practices to enable them to conduct and complete their research. 

In addition, DIFI shared the “Civil Society Statement on Parenting” with the attendees, which was launched prior to the kick off of its international conference.