A practitioner guide to OnePlusOne digital resources for parents

Introduction

Most relationships have their ups and downs, and disagreements and arguments are normal. But arguments between parents that are intense, hostile, and poorly resolved can be harmful to their children and put their mental health and long term life outcomes at risk. Learning to argue in ways that are helpful rather than harmful is vital for maintaining healthy relationships, whether parents are together or not.

The digital resources provided by OnePlusOne are designed to help parents reflect on conflict in their relationship with current or ex-partners, as well as the impact on their children. The resources use videos and animations that incorporate evidence-based techniques to promote behaviour change and help parents to argue in ways that are helpful rather than harmful.

OnePlusOne digital resources

There are three digital resources available for parents:
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1. Me, You and Baby Too

2. Arguing better

3. Getting it Right for Children

Audience

New and expectant parents – targeted or universal.

Parents experiencing high levels of stress and couple conflict.

Separating or separated parents experiencing high levels of conflict.

Objectives for parents

To help new and expectant parents adapt to the changes that parenthood can have on their relationship.
To raise awareness of the impact of stress and conflict on their baby.
To support parents to develop skills to manage conflict constructively.

To raise awareness of parental conflict and its impact on children.
To increase parents’ capacity to cope with stress together.
To support parents to develop skills to manage their conflict more constructively.

To raise parents’ awareness and understanding of how they are putting their child in the middle of their conflict.
To help parents to develop positive communication skills.
To support parents to co-operate and work out solutions together.

Content

Changes for me and us.
Coping with stress.
Conflict and communication.

Understanding stress.
Coping with stress together.
Arguing better.

Stay calm.
See it differently.
Speak for myself.
Negotiate.
Work it out.

You should have been sent a link giving you access to the three digital resources. If not, please contact the facilitator for this programme in your local authority.

Each digital resource has a practitioner guide that will show you how to introduce parents to the resource that will be most useful to their situation and support them as they work through it. There is also an evidence base section where you will find the research that has informed this programme. You can dip in and out of this depending on what you already know and what you need to learn to help you feel confident to share the digital resources with parents.

How to use OnePlusOne’s digital resources with parents

OnePlusOne digital resources are set up to help you work with parents remotely with your encouragement and support. We recommend that you guide parents to work through the digital resource that is best suited to their situation, in their own time.

For Me, You and Baby Too and Arguing Better it will take about 30-40 minutes to work through the whole resource, or they can do them one section at a time.
For GIRFC, parents need space to reflect and practice the skills. We recommend that they watch one family scenario at a time and practice the skills over several sessions.

We suggest you have a follow-up call with the parents after each session to discuss how they got on. This will give you a chance to check progress, assess understanding, clarify any misunderstandings, and offer further relationship support where appropriate.

At the end of each session, parents are encouraged to set a goal to work on between your contacts with them. The key messages will assist you in recapping and goal setting.

Accessing digital resources

The parents will need:

A computer, tablet, or smartphone on which they can play video or hear sound.
A good internet connection.
Any modern web browser (like Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari)

All of our resources are accessed from the browser, so there's no need to download apps or install plugins. ‍

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Before you introduce parents to the resource that is most appropriate for them, you will find it helpful to log in and familiarise yourself, so that you have an idea of what they will see.

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You should have been sent a link giving you access to the three digital resources. If not, please contact the facilitator for this programme in your local authority. ‍If you have any questions about the digital resources or this guide, please email us at info@oneplusone.org.uk.

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