The Ngati Hine Health Trust wants to add a Maori dimension to the internationally popular Triple P Positive Parenting Programme.
It's working on the project with Triple-P developers at the University of Queensland and parenting researchers at the University of Auckland.
Trust chair Gwen Tepania-Palmer says it wants to build on the success of Te Mirumiru, it early education program for preschoolers.
She says early whanau/family life and consistent positive parenting has a huge influence on tamariki behaviour and life opportunities.
Te Whanau Pou Toru project team member Matt Shepherd, a Maori clinical psychologist, says Maori parents in Whangarei and Kawakawa are being sought to help evaluate the program.
Dr Shepherd says parents who have completed the programme, which involves attending two 2-hour parenting discussion groups, say their tamariki are better behaved.
Parents feel more confident, less stressed and report an improved relationship with their children.
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