Happy Family Kitchen II: Participants’ Perspectives of a Community-based Family Intervention

This qualitative study describes participants' experiences with a community-based family intervention. Guided by a positive psychology framework, the brief intervention was designed to enhance positive communication among family members using cooking and dining as a platform. Our interest was in understanding perceptions of benefits and barriers, with the intention of improving future development of communitybased family programs. Purposive sampling was used to recruit focus group participants from those who had participated in the family programs. Overall, 10 focus groups including 65 participants were conducted from April to July 2013. Thematic analysis of the focus groups suggested that the intervention was effective in promoting positive communication, increasing the use of age-appropriate parenting practices, and promoting quality family mealtime. These changes in turn led to perceived positive outcomes by our participants, including a sense of happiness and enhanced family relationship. Cultural and gender beliefs were identified as challenges and are important to consider for future family interventions. Time constraint was further highlighted as an important consideration both in the context of integrating skills into the family routine as well as a barrier to participation in family programs. Our findings add to the small but steadily increasing body of knowledge, especially from qualitative studies, on the effectiveness of brief family interventions.