The MINd-Us-TOgether path can be followed under two different conditions ("App", "Control"): by which criteria are the three groups of parents assigned?
Parents who give their willingness to participate will be randomly assigned to one of these two groups. The participation of these people in the project, respecting the random assignment is very important for parents who will be interested in the future. It will allow researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of the MINd-Us-TOgether path in "App" mode.
The research team offers the opportunity to participate in the project to all parents of children aged 4 or 5 enrolled in preschools. Only one parent can participate for each child.
Participation is not allowed for those parents from the Municipality of Bologna who already took part in MinUTo project in 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 scholastic years.
The selection of parents assigned to the control group, which will only be able to participate in the MINUTO path at the end of the research project, is completely random.
For reasons related to the nature of the proposed activities (suitable for children aged 4 and 5) only parents of children born in 2016 and 2017 can participate.
Can I participate even if my child does not attend a preschool in the Municipality of Bologna or in the Municipality of Ravenna?
The participation is open to parents of children born between 2017 and 2018. For budget and logistic reasons, only schools who have a formal agreement with the project are guaranteed the reimbursement of expenses.
The amount of the expenses reimbursement is proportionate to the number of participants who have completed the questionnaires proposed in the initial and final phase of the path. The reimbursement to the school for each parent completing the questionnaires is of 10 euros for the initial phase and 20 euros for the final phase.
Do parents need a good knowledge of Italian to answer questionnaires or use the app?
Participation in the project is open to all parents who have a good knowledge of one of the three languages in which the APP and questionnaires are made available (Italian, English or French).
Yes, families with only one parent present can participate. Actually, we remind you that even for families with two parents present, only one parent can participate in the initiative.
Did the project receive funding from private firms?
No, the project received only public funding from the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) under the PRIN 2017 call, with the project "At the Roots of Child Development: On the Role of Parental Beliefs, Preferences and Engagement". The app is developed by Indici Opponibili upon request of the Department of Economic Sciences, and the ultimate goal is to make it available free of charge, at the end of the research project.
I really like this proposal and I would like to involve parents in my school. Is there any documentation I can use to spread the information?
You can use this site to inform parents. Teachers, pedagogists, educators and principals who want more information about the project can subscribe to our mailing list.
Some posters on the project will be sent to the kindergartens of the Municipalities of Bologna and Ravenna. If your school has not received them or wants more of them, you can request them by writing to progetto.minuto@unibo.it.
Individual membership by parents to the project is possible until November 15, 2022 directly at the link below, from which you can also download the information for participation in the study and the information for the data processing.
The initial questionnaires will be completed by parents in the period December 8 - December 22, 2022 (skills and beliefs questionnaires). The mindful parenting (conscious parenting) path will take place between February 2023 and May 2023, while the final questionnaires are expected to be completed by parents between May 2023 and June 2023.
The group assigned to "APP" mode will be given access to the contents of the APP MINUTO MINd-Us-TOgether; The group assigned to the "Control" mode will be given access to the APP MINUTO MINd-Us-TOgether for filling in the questionnaires only.
At the end of the project, parents of the "Control" group, not included this year, will also be offered the opportunity to access to App MinUTo contents.
The initial questionnaires take about 60 minutes to complete; final questionnaires take a similar amount of time to be completed.
This year it is not possible for teachers (if they are not also parents of children aged 4 or 5) to download the App MinUTo: the experience has been designed to be directly used by parents.
Will it be possible to combine work and family life with participation in the project?
App MinUTo contents will be available from February and May 2023, for participants assigned to the "APP" condition only. The path is developed to be gradually followed in 5 subsequent steps, in 10 weeks, but each parents will be free to use contents at his/her own pace.
for more information
MINUTO Project
For any other questions you can contact us by e-mail. We will be happy to answer to you!
