L’objectif de cette étude a été d’évaluer l’efficacité d’un programme de soutien à la parentalité sur l’évolution des attitudes et pratiques éducatives d’un groupe de mères issues d’un milieu socioéconomique défavorisé, comparativement à des mères issues du même milieu et ne l’ayant pas suivi. Les résultats mettent en évidence que les attitudes éducatives des mères du groupe expérimental évoluent de manière significative vers plus de souplesse, comparativement au groupe contrôle. De plus, les résultats aux tests de connaissances en pré- et post-test révèlent une meilleure identification et appropriation des pratiques éducatives par les mères du groupe cible entre le début et la fin du programme. Enfin, ces mères déclarent toutes que leurs capacités à gérer les difficultés de leur enfant sont bien meilleures suite à l’expérimentation. Ce travail exploratoire permet une meilleure compréhension des processus intervenant au sein des groupes éducatifs, l’objectif étant de développer un sentiment de compétence chez les parents, en leur donnant les moyens d’apporter une structuration éducative plus favorable au devenir de leur enfant.

The difficult economic context of Western countries and sociocultural changes in family structure are increasing the complexity and diversity of parental roles in the accomplishment of everyday tasks. This phenomenon is especially marked in socially and economically disadvantaged areas, which are particularly destabilised by environmental problems. Studies in this field have suggested that parental attitudes and educational practices play a key role in the development of the child. However, these practices remain malleable, and they may oscillate between being risk factors and protective factors. Exploiting this theoretical framework with the goal of reducing the socio-affective and educational risks to children, preventive interventions can be implemented, with the aim of helping parents in their role as educators. The development of parental support programmes, involving efforts to improve parental attitudes and educational practices in a qualitative manner, can thus mediate between disadvantaged socio-economic environment and the behavioural, cognitive and affective development of the child. This article presents exploratory research on this theme, evaluating changes in the attitudes and educational skills of the parents of young children from disadvantaged socio-economic environments following their participation or non-participation in a parental education programme. Fifteen mothers from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds took part in a parental education programme entitled “Being the parent of young children” (EPJE; Terrisse and Pithon, 2008), which used a series of cartoons to address the management of educational problems. This group was compared with a control group of 10 mothers from the same socio-economic environment, matched for age and education level. All the families selected received educational assistance at home (AED) or attended clinics (Service de protection maternelle et infantile; PMI) for children under the age of six years. The two groups were evaluated with the Échelle des Compétences Éducatives Parentales (ECEP; the Parental Educative Skills Scale; Terrisse and Larose, 1999), which explores (a) the “rigidity/flexibility”, “wariness/confidence” dimensions of educational attitudes; (b) “normative/elaborative” and “severity/liberalism” aspects of parental behaviour; (c) the feeling of parental “control” according to an “internality/externality” axis. The experimental group was also evaluated to assess the acquisition of knowledge about child education and degree of satisfaction with the programme. We found that the educational attitudes of the mothers in the experimental group changed significantly more towards greater flexibility than those in the control group and, in general, their educational style evolved more favourably than that of the control group (more elaborative practices, more internalised feelings of control). Similarly, the significant difference in results in tests of knowledge before and after the programme reveals an improvement in the identification and appropriation of educational practices by parents. All the mothers of the experimental group declared that their confidence in their ability to manage the difficulties of their child had definitively increased following the programme. This exploratory study demonstrates the beneficial effects of a parental support programme, although the small size of the sample currently precludes the generalisation of these results. Nevertheless, this preliminary study improves our understanding of the processes occurring within these educational groups, the objective being to develop a feeling of competence in parents, by giving them the means to provide an educational structure favouring a better outcome for their child. This research also opens up new possibilities for considering the cultural characteristics of parents from disadvantaged environments, who often come from very different communities.