Aider les parents à être parents ? Modèles et pratiques des programmes « evidence-based » d’aide à la parentalité

En France, les dernières années ont été marquées par l’émergence d’un mouvement de santé publique visant à promouvoir la santé mentale des enfants et des parents au travers de la mise en place de programmes evidence-based (fondés sur des données probantes). Si un certain nombre de pratiques en la matière tendent à se développer sous une terminologie semblable, leur contenu n’est pas homogène, compromettant la clarté des recommandations et rendant la prise de décision politique difficile. Cet article se propose de contribuer à rendre plus lisibles les modes d’interventions sur la parentalité répertoriés dans la littérature scientifique internationale, et de présenter les différents cadres conceptuels, pratiques et épistémologiques des deux principaux modèles dominants dégagés de l’analyse de cette littérature : l’éducation parentale et le soutien à la parentalité. In France, these last years have been characterized by the emergence of a new public health movement aiming at promoting children and parents’ mental health through the implementation of evidence-based programs. If a certain number of interventions tend to be developed under a similar terminology, their contents are not homogeneous. This phenomenon compromises the clarity of the political recommendations made for this matter and engenders difficulties in regard to political decision-making. This article seeks to clarify the different types of parenting programs that can be found in international scientific literature and to present their conceptual, practical and epistemological frames. A literature review has been performed on articles published between 1992 and 2012 focusing on preventive parenting programs. A qualitative approach using thematic, lexical and content analysis was used to describe the operational and specific objectives of the interventions, their contents (mode and place of intervention), the targeted populations (parents and children) and their theoretical framework. A diversity of approaches have been identified. The analyses revealed the existence of six fields of interest within parenting programs (physical health, mental health, positive parenting, substance use prevention, violence prevention and cognitive development). Seven distinct theoretical approaches emerged from the data (cognitive, systemic, psychoeducational, psychoanalytical, coaching, community and ecological). Different thematic of interventions as well as different modes and places of interventions were found