The short‐term impact of a problem‐solving skills programme for Iranian parents

Background: The ability of children to solve problems is an important influence on the social‐cognitive development of children. Parents and children who use problem‐solving strategies display more positive parent‐child relationships. It follows that parents will be more effective in promoting the children's development and healthy parent‐child relationships if they are skilled in problem‐solving strategies and encourage their children to use these strategies. Aim: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the short‐term efficacy of a problem‐solving skills program for Iranian parents (the ‘Raising a Thinking Child’ program) on the parent‐child relationship. Materials and method: Sixty‐four mothers of 4–8 year‐old children participated voluntarily in 12 2‐hour weekly workshops over a three month period. Parents were taught a procedure for problem‐solving and provided with the opportunity to consider how the procedure could be applied in response to challenging behaviors of their children. The problem‐solving strategies were taught as an alternative to ineffective approaches such as punishing and reprimanding. Results: Results indicated that teaching problem‐solving skills to parents had a positive influence on a number of dimensions of parenting as measured by the Parent Child Relationship Inventory. Conclusion: Parents who attended the program felt more supported, more involved with their children and better able to balance limit setting and child autonomy.     

INVOLVING PARENTS IN A COMMUNITY‐BASED,CULTURALLY GROUNDED MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTION FOR AMERICAN INDIAN YOUTH: PARENT PERSPECTIVES,CHALLENGES, AND RESULTS

An important predictor of youth well‐being and resilience is the presence of nurturing adults in a youth's life. Parents are ideally situated to fulfill this role but often face challenges and stressors that impede their ability to provide adequate support and guidance. American Indian parents may also be affected by intergenerational transmission of trauma and loss of traditional parenting practices, as a result of forced boarding school and/or relocation. Members of a community‐university partnership sought to interrupt cycles of violence and poor mental health of youth through a culturally‐grounded intervention for youth and their parents that focused on healing historical trauma, strengthening positive parenting practices and social skills, reconnecting to traditional cultural knowledge, and improving parent‐child relationships/communication. This article describes parental involvement and its challenges and provides mixed‐method results for 10 parents related to enculturation, parenting practices, parent‐child communication, family cohesion, historical loss and associated symptoms, and community involvement.     

DADS TUNING IN TO KIDS: PILOTING A NEW PARENTING PROGRAM TARGETING FATHERS’ EMOTION COACHING SKILLS

This pilot study reports the preliminary evaluation of an emotion socialization parenting program for fathers of preschool children. The program, Dads Tuning in to Kids (DadsTIK), is a specifically modified version of a universal evidence‐based prevention program, Tuning in to Kids (Havighurst & Harley, 2007). DadsTIK teaches fathers emotion coaching parenting skills that have previously been linked to children's social‐emotional competence and fewer behavior problems. The 7‐session (14 hours total) group program was delivered to 43 fathers who completed pre‐ and post‐program questionnaires assessing their parenting (emotional style, reactions to children's negative emotions, reactive/angry parenting, and parenting competence) and child outcomes (behavioral functioning). Program retention was excellent; and, post‐program, fathers reported increased emotion coaching, decreased emotion dismissing, decreased angry reactivity and improved parenting efficacy and satisfaction. They also reported reductions in difficult child behaviors. These positive outcomes suggest DadsTIK warrants further investigation.     

The family as affected by schooling for severely retarded children: An invitation to research

The implementation of Public Law 94–142, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, promises massive impact on the dynamics of families that have a severely impaired child. These children had previously been denied access to school and were at great risk for placement outside the natural home. The new law provides an individualized program for all these children, doorstop busing, and necessary auxiliary services—all at no cost to the parents. The schools must invite parents to participate in all key phases of the educational program. Opportunities for study include the possible change of parent attitude about giving up the child to some community or institutional placement, the extent to which parents elect to accept the school's invitations to participate, and effects on their own parenting skills of the school's techniques of behavior control and training of basic self-care skills. Both the development of attachments between parents and their handicapped child and the role of social networks that evolve through school contacts require exploration.     

Tuning in to kids: an emotion‐focused parenting program—initial findings from a community trial

This study evaluated a new group parenting program, Tuning in to Kids, which taught emotion coaching skills to parents of preschool children. In a randomized control trial, 218 primary caregiver parents of children aged 4.0–5.11 years completed questionnaires assessing parent emotion socialization (emotion coaching vs. emotion dismissing), parent emotional competence, parent wellbeing and child behavior. Assessment occurred at preintervention and 10 weeks later. Parents randomized to the intervention condition (n=107) attended a 6‐session parenting program. Results showed parents in the intervention condition reported significant increases in emotion coaching and significant reductions in emotion dismissing with their children. Child behavior was also reported to improve. Of those with clinical levels of behavior difficulties, more than half were no longer at clinical level postprogram. These findings suggest that an emotion‐focused parenting intervention may assist parents to learn emotion‐coaching skills that have been linked to improved child behavior. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Parenting Coordination: Applying Clinical Thinking to the Management and Resolution of Post‐Divorce Conflict

There is a small but significant number of parents who remain stuck in a high level of conflict with each other after the legal conclusion of their divorce. Exposure to chronically high levels of parental conflict is a strong risk factor negatively affecting both children's short‐ and long‐term adjustment. Parenting coordination is a nonadversarial, child‐focused dispute‐resolution process designed to help divorced parents contain their conflict to protect children from its negative effect. Parenting coordination is a hybrid role combining different skills and conflict‐resolution approaches. In high‐conflict divorce, each parent's internalization of relationship patterns constructed from past experiences contributes to the intractable nature of the interparent conflict. A case presentation illustrates how this clinical perspective enhances the parenting coordinator's ability to work with parents to manage and contain their parenting conflicts with each other.     

Outcomes of early parent‐child adrenocortical attunement in the high‐risk offspring of depressed parents

This study examined the impact of parent‐child attunement of morning cortisol on parenting and child outcomes in dyads with and without parental depression. Participants included 142 parent‐child dyads (3–5 years‐old) who provided morning cortisol samples at Wave 1, and 98 dyads returned for the 3‐year follow‐up at Wave 2. Results indicated that for parents with a history of depression and for female children, stronger attunement predicted increases in parental hostility from Wave 1 to Wave 2. For females only, stronger attunement was related to children's depressive symptoms at Wave 1 and Wave 2. Stronger attunement was also associated with increases in children's depressive symptoms from Wave 1 to Wave 2, poorer psychosocial functioning at Wave 1, and ADHD symptoms at Wave 2. Findings highlight attunement as an important biological process related to parenting and child outcomes and suggest it may play a role in the intergenerational transmission of depression risk.     

IMPROVING PARENTING OF TODDLERS’ EMOTIONS USING AN EMOTION COACHING PARENTING PROGRAM: A PILOT STUDY OF TUNING IN TO TODDLERS

Parental responses to children's emotions influence children's emotion‐related abilities. Tuning in to Toddlers (TOTS) is a new emotion‐focused parenting program for parents of toddlers aged 18 to 36 months. It is based on the empirically tested Tuning in to Kids program that teaches parents how to emotion coach their children. In the current pilot study, an intervention‐only sample of parents of typically developing toddlers attended a 6‐session group program. At preprogram and postprogram, parents’ emotion‐coaching and emotion‐dismissing behaviors were assessed using self‐report questionnaires and observation measures. Results showed significant increases in self‐reported and observed emotion coaching behaviors and use of emotion talk after intervention. There was also a significant decrease in self‐reported and observed emotion dismissing behaviors, and toddler externalizing behavior problems. Overall, findings provide preliminary support for TOTS and suggest its potential as a valuable intervention for supporting parents in their efforts to emotion coach their toddlers.     

Mediators and Treatment Factors in Intervention for Children Exposed to Interparental Violence

Changes in children's emotion differentiation, coping skills, parenting stress, parental psychopathology, and parent–child interaction were explored as mediators of treatment factors in two selective preventive group interventions for children exposed to interparental violence (IPV) and their parents. One hundred thirty-four IPV-exposed children (ages 6–12 years, 52% boys) and their parents were randomized to an IPV-focused or common factors community-based group intervention and completed baseline, posttest, and follow-up assessments for posttraumatic stress (PTS). A multilevel model tested mediators that included children's ability to differentiate emotions and coping skills, parenting stress, parental psychopathology, and parent–child interactions. In both conditions, exposure to nonspecific factors, specific factors unrelated to IPV and trauma-specific intervention factors was coded from videotaped child and parent sessions. Improved parental mental health mediated the link between greater exposure to nonspecific treatment factors and decreases in PTS symptoms. In addition, an increase in emotion differentiation and a decrease in parenting stress were associated with a decrease in PTS symptoms. Greater exposure to trauma-specific factors in child sessions was associated with a small decrease in emotion differentiation, an increase in coping skills, and a decrease in PTS symptoms over time. Greater exposure to nonspecific treatment factors in child and parent sessions was associated with more positive parent–child interaction. Parental mental health appears to be an important mechanism of change that can be promoted through exposure to nonspecific factors in parent intervention. For children, the effect of greater exposure to trauma-specific factors in intervention is less clear and may not have clear benefits.     

Strengthening intergenerational/intercultural ties in migrant families: A new intervention for parents

The development of intergenerational/intercultural conflict secondary to differential rates of acculturation between migrant parents and their children has been repeatedly noted in the literature. It has been shown to be associated with negative mental health consequences for both parents and children. However, currently, very few community-based interventions address this risk factor. The paper describes SITICAF (Strengthening of Intergenerational/Intercultural Ties in Immigrant Chinese American Families), an 8-week parenting program which aims to prevent and reduce this conflict. In a pilot study, SITICAF was tested with 15 immigrant Chinese American parents. In spite of the small sample size, pre–post assessments showed the parenting intervention to be effective in improving the intergenerational relationship, increasing the participants' sense of parenting responsibility and control of child, and sense of coherence. Also, a stronger sense of parenting control was associated with a better intergenerational relationship, which, in turn, was associated with an increase in the child's esteem. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Interventions for women prisoners and their children in the post‐release period

Women offenders and their children represent a severely disadvantaged and marginalised population. For many children, the very risk factors that contributed to their own mother's incarceration are present in their current lives, creating an intergenerational vulnerability for poor outcomes. Providing an intensive individualised parenting intervention in the post‐release period may help improve family functioning. The aim of the present study was to ascertain the feasibility and short‐term effectiveness of delivering an intensive multifaceted parenting program, Parents Under Pressure (PUP), to women offenders after release or in low‐security confinement where they were living with their children. Twelve women commenced the program and eight completed treatment. Treatment completion was associated with significant positive change, in particular an improvement in maternal mental health and the quality of the parent‐child relationship, with reductions found in child abuse potential and problem child behaviours. The present results highlight the potential benefits of delivering intensive multifaceted parenting interventions, such as PUP, to women who have been involved in the criminal justice system.     

BOOK REVIEW: Handbook of Parent Training: Parents as Co-Therapists for Children's Behavior Problems (2nd ed)

We examined parent and child moderators of outcome, program engagement effects, and predictors of engagement in the Incredible Years Parent Training Program. Head Start classrooms (N = 882 children) were randomly assigned to an intervention condition (that received the Incredible Years program) or to a control condition (that received usual Head Start services). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to model the effects of the training program on child outcomes. The analyses showed differential program effects depending on children's initial levels of conduct problems and mothers' initial levels of critical parenting. Children with high baseline levels of conduct problems and children of mothers with high initial levels of critical parenting benefited most from the program. Changes in children's conduct problems were also related to maternal engagement in the program and to intervention mothers' success at reducing their critical parenting.     

Interactions Between Children and Abusive Versus Control Parents

Forty-five families (22 court-referred abusive families and 23 control families) participated in a laboratory play task as part of a larger study on family processes and child abuse (Reid, 1986). We led each family into a play room, asked the parents to play with the child for a 10-min period, and then asked them to have the child help clean up. We videotaped all sessions and coded the tapes using the Fagot Interactive Code, with the child's behavior categorized as passive, verbal communication, aversive, and narrative play. Although control children talked significantly more than abused children, botch abused and control children responded equally often to parent initiations of interaction. We grouped parent responses into positive and negative clusters. Abusive parents showed significantly less positive parenting than did control parents, and they responded significantly less to the child's initiations of interaction. We discuss the results in terms of lack of prosocial parenting skills of abusing parents.     

CHILDHOOD TEMPERAMENT‐BASED ANTICIPATORY GUIDANCE IN AN HMO SETTING: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

This study investigates whether individualized, anticipatory temperament guidance could benefit the parent‐child relationship and improve children's mental health over time. Parents of preschoolers in a health management organization completed a temperament questionnaire, received written parenting information tailored to their child's temperament, and were asked to complete a program evaluation questionnaire. The numbers of subsequent visits to the pediatric and psychiatry departments with anxiety, depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other externalizing behavior diagnoses were compared over 15 years to a control sample that received only standard care. Parents positively reviewed the program and boys who received the intervention had fewer visits with psychiatric diagnoses. Analyses revealed an interaction effect, where boys with harder‐to‐manage temperaments saw a greater reduction in visits from the intervention. By sensitizing parents to their child's temperament and helping parents understand and manage temperament‐related behaviors, anticipatory guidance can encourage a positive parent‐child relationship and reduce future occurrences of psychiatric diagnoses.     

Family processes among Latino Early Head Start families: Understanding the role of caregiver acculturation

The Family Stress Model (FSM) provides a framework for how economic pressure can impact family processes and outcomes, including parent's mental health, parenting, and child problem behaviors. Although the FSM has been widely replicated, samples disproportionately impacted by poverty, including early childhood samples and in particular Latino families with young children, have been largely excluded from FSM research. Therefore, among a sample of Latino Early Head Start children (N = 127), the current study evaluated a modified FSM to understand the direct and indirect pathways among economic pressure, parental depression, parenting self‐efficacy, the parent–child relationship, child problem behaviors, and parental acculturation. Results showed that the majority of the direct FSM pathways were well‐replicated among Latino caregivers of young children. Further analyses illuminated how some pathways were replicated among more but not among less‐acculturated Latino parents. Implications for future FSM research with Latino families as well as for parent‐focused interventions are discussed.     

Parental beliefs and help seeking in mothers' use of a community-based family support program

This study examined mothers' help seeking from a family support program. The mothers' participation in the parenting program was examined within an attributional and social support framework as a function of four factors: (a) the mother's level of child-related stresses, (b) the mother's expressed need for social support in parenting, (c) the mother's attribution of the child's behavior problems to her own efforts, and (d) the mother's belief in her competence as a parent. Mothers participating in a community-based family support program (N = 79) were compared to mothers (N = 56) not using a family support program in a Midwestern town with a manufacturing economic base, high unemployment, and an increasing rate of confirmed child abuse. The mothers using the family support program reported significantly higher child behavior stresses than did a community sample of mothers with similar-aged children. The mothers seeking help also attributed child behavior problems to their own behavior as a parent. Though the mothers seeking help were not depressed, they believed they lacked competence and expressed more need for social support in parenting than did the comparison mothers not using the program.     

Perceptions of inner city parents about early behavioral and violence prevention counseling

OBJECTIVES: (1) Identify how receptive inner city parents of young children are to routine anticipatory guidance about behavior at well child care visits. (2) Determine whether inner city parents correlate early behavior problems with a risk of later behavior problems. (3) Determine whether inner city parents believe that physician-provided anticipatory guidance about behavioral issues and violence prevention can help their child avoid future violence-related problems. METHODS: A convenience sample of parents of children < or =5 years old attending an inner city pediatric teaching clinic were invited to complete a self-administered survey including questions about behavior, parenting, and physician-provided behavior and violence counseling. RESULTS: One hundred and ninety-five participants completed surveys; most were African-American (81%) mothers (92%). In response to T/F questions, 84% of parents responded "False" to "Bad behavior in kids cannot be prevented" (95% CI; 78.8, 89.1), 97% responded "False" to "[Bad behavior in kids] cannot be changed" (95% CI; 94.5, 99.3), and 67% responded "True" to "My child's doctor can help me protect my child from violence" (59.8, 73.6). A majority of parents indicated that doctors should routinely ask about behavior and discuss parenting even if the parent was not worried about their child's behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Inner city parents believe that bad behavior in children can be changed and prevented. They welcome physician-provided guidance about behavior and believe physicians can help their children avoid violence.     

Longitudinal Relations Between Parenting and Child Adjustment in Young Children

We studied the predictive relations between reports of parenting behavior on the one hand and academic achievement and reported behavior problems of young children on the other hand. Data were gathered for 352 children and their parents from kindergarten to 2nd grade. The results indicated that in the academic domain, low supportive and high controlling parenting practices were modestly related to poor subsequent math achievement. Children's externalizing and attention problem behavior was clearly predictive of high levels of control in mothers and low levels of support in fathers. The combination of high parental support and control was especially associated with high levels of problem behavior. However, when previous parenting and child adjustment were taken into account, the magnitude of the predictive power of parenting for child adjustment, and of child adjustment for parenting, remained limited.     

The child's active role in mother–child,father–child psychotherapy: A psychodynamic approach to the treatment of relational disturbances

The short‐term mother–child and father–child psychoanalytic psychotherapy assumes that children develop specific types of relationships with each parent, as well as with the parenting couple. The model integrates an intra‐psychic, object‐relational view with an interpersonal perspective to the treatment of relational disturbances in childhood. The same therapist meets with the mother–child, father–child dyads on a weekly basis, along with regular meetings with the parental dyad. The model focuses on the developmentally prelatency child's need for the active participation of both parents in the here‐and‐now shared experiences of the therapeutic process. The participants express, in interactions and in enactments, various contents and meanings of their specific patterns of relations. The therapist addresses the behaviours as well as the meanings of relations, thus promoting reflective understanding and experiential changes in self, other, and self‐other relations. The child's active and different participation with each parent is the main change‐promoting factor. The child uses mainly the medium of play to express his/her needs and to mobilize the therapist's help. The therapist's access to the different dyads is utilized to better understand the explicit and implicit relational themes. The therapist supports the co‐construction of new and different behaviour patterns and the co‐creation of additional meanings to representations. The setup fosters the child's active participation in each dyad's growth‐promoting changes.     

Children's and parents' perceptions of children's exposure to violence in urban neighborhoods.

This study examined child and parent perceptions of children''s exposure to community violence in a sample of 9 to 12 year olds from high- and low-violence neighborhoods in Washington, DC. More than 75% of the African-American elementary school children sampled indicated that they had witnessed incidents of community violence ranging from homicides to nonfatal shootings, physical assaults, gang violence, robbery with assaults, and rape in their neighborhoods. Yet, almost half of the parents in the study denied that their children had been exposed to any community violence. When these discrepancies were examined, results revealed that children whose parents were in disagreement regarding their exposure to community violence were less likely to experience social support from their peers. Parents'' possible lack of awareness as to the experience of their children may place them at further risk by eliminating the possibility for adult-child interaction and guidance regarding their experience with violence in their neighborhoods. Recommendations are provided to assist adults in addressing the needs of children exposed to community violence.