Welcome

The Parents Under Pressure program (PUP) is an intervention specifically designed for use with multi-problem, high-risk families. These are families characterised by their use of authoritarian parenting practices (high rates of physical punishment) and low levels of child centred parenting (e.g., play, praise, physical affection).

Parents in these families are often under high levels of stress, and have limited support networks. The parents may have experienced abuse or poor parenting themselves as children with little opportunity for working through the emotional impact of their own childhood experiences. Parents who have experienced abusive or neglectful upbringing are more likely to have difficulty regulating their emotions, and have incoherent and insecure attachment representations as adults that reduces their ability to form stable, supportive relationships (including relationships their own children).

The parents often display higher than normal rates of depression, anxiety, and substance misuse, and the children display poor developmental outcomes including behavioural problems, poor school achievement and emotional and social difficulties.

The overriding aim of the PUP program is to help parents facing adversity develop positive and secure relationships with their children, reduce problem child behaviours (where they exist), and promote a settled, stable, and safe family environment.