Edinburgh Napier University

  Mellow Dads is an adaptation of Mellow Parenting, which is a group-based intervention originally for mothers of children aged 0-5. It is primarily focused on improving father-child attachment in circumstances where family relationships are very difficult, children are considered to be at risk of harm and fathers themselves have psycho-social vulnerabilities. This report presents findings from a qualitative independent process evaluation of Mellow Dads in a local authority in central Scotland.
The process evaluation considered the following aspects of Mellow Dads, all of which are presented in the report: what is its theoretical basis?; how is the programme received by the fathers?; and how does theory translate into practice? Mellow Dads could be seen as an example of cultural adaptation, insofar as it is a mothers’ group adapted for fathers. This raises the interesting question of whether the same gains can be achieved with fathers as with mothers. The report therefore also includes some discussion of masculinity and the challenges of working with men as non-traditional clients of parenting services. Before explaining the evaluation methods and then presenting findings, an overview will now be given of existing research on Mellow Parenting.