OC Parents Can Model Healthy Conversations this Thanksgiving with Free Triple P – Positive Parenting Program

Easy-to-Access Online and Smartphone Modules Made Available by Orange County Health Care Agency 

ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. – With the holiday season approaching and Orange County’s (OC) extended families preparing for more time together, child psychologists and parents are applauding a free positive parenting program that’s helping guide parents in handling conflict, stress, and family disagreements. The Positive Parenting Program—Triple P—can be accessed by OC parents for free on their smartphones at www.triplep.online/oc. OC parenting experts are stressing the need for positive parenting resources to help navigate stress and family tension.

“Our children learn more from what we do and say than anything else in their lives, which means if we’re stressed, yelling, and showing conflict in our families, it creates stress for children that they do not know how to handle,” said Dr. Randy Ahn, local Triple P Implementation Consultant. “Political disagreements. Tension over vaccines and mask mandates. These challenges aren’t going away. They contribute to clinically elevated levels of depression and anxiety in children globally.[1] It’s important for parents to take small moments to remember the ways they can model for their children how best to handle tense, difficult relationships with other family members.”

Parents who bring realistic expectations to their family relationships and show calm, creative ways to solving problems and expressing opinions about fairness, justice or how others behave in the world—all are examples to children.

Diana Robles, M.A. of California State University, Fullerton, is a former social worker and now-full-time faculty who teaches courses in Child and Adolescent Studies at the University each semester. She has said that Triple P is built on strong evidence-based science and it’s become part of her coursework in modelling the type of positive parenting that helps children become confident and happy.

“I’ve asked my students for years to spend time in the Triple P program for precisely how it shows real-life conflict and how parents can best navigate tense family dynamics,” Robles said. “I think it’s wonderful that this program has been made free to OC parents. They can watch in very short modules both video re-enactments that show not only the good behavior but real-life, tense, difficult scenes that involve yelling and argument. It’s helpful for parents to learn more about how to be flexible, raise emotionally healthy children and teach them how to work together to solve family disagreements.”

Every Orange County parent and caregiver of children and teens aged 0-16 can access Triple P Online, including the online guide to parenting during COVID-19, for free at www.triplep.online/oc The online program is available in three languages—English, Spanish, and Arabic.