Assessing parenting in potentially abusive parents: a qualitative evaluation of practitioner responses to the parenting role interview

The Parenting Role Interview (PRI) is a research tool which has been introduced into a residential assessment home for parents referred for difficulties in interacting with their children, potential neglect/abuse issues and previous trauma. Staff were trained in the PRI to be used as part of their standard assessment procedure of parenting competence. This study describes a qualitative evaluation, through interviews and focus groups, of practitioner responses to the PRI in a voluntary agency service setting. Transcripts from the interviews and focus groups were analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis. Two main themes were drawn out from the data. The first theme revolved around the mainly positive impact of the PRI within the assessment service including the impact on staff, service users, the service as a whole and court reporting. The second theme focused on the applicability of the PRI to the service users focusing on the difficulty of fitting the measure around service users’ experience of parenting and complex needs. Findings showed a number of key benefits from using the PRI within the overall assessment process particularly with regard to the objective nature of the measure and its ability to bring concrete examples. Limitations of the approach included time constraints and adaptations needed for the measure within this service user group. Overall the approach showed successful translation of research knowledge and methods in an assessment service.