Infant assessment as intervention and parent education

The importance of involving parents as active participants in the process of infant assessment is discussed. Presented are techniques for facilitating this involvement which can maximize the possibility that parents will follow through on educational plans. Use of this type of assessment is a form of intervention.     

A comprehensive and systematic approach to parent education

Abstract

This paper emphasizes the importance of parent education, particularly in our current rapidly changing society. The history of parent education is briefly reviewed and a new program called STEP, Systematic Training for Effective Parenting is discussed in detail.     

Effects of parent education on knowledge and attitudes

This study evaluated 42 pregnant and parenting adolescents (aged 13 to 20 years) and adults (who began parenting as adolescents) enrolled in parenting classes. The Parent as a Teacher Inventory and the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory were used to measure change in knowledge and attitudes following participation in the classes. The findings indicated significant improvement as a result of parent education.     

Enhancement of maturity of moral judgment by parent education

Relationships between maturity of moral judgment of parents, role-taking opportunities in the home, role-taking ability in children, and maturity of children's moral judgment were studied. A parent intervention program designed to increase role-taking opportunities in the home thought to lead to an increase in the maturity of moral judgment of children was utilized. Suggestive evidence for the claim that it is possible to accelerate rates of moral maturity of children through intervening indirectly to train their parents was found. Significant relationships were also found between maturity of moral judgment in children and role-taking and opportunities for role-taking in the home. Maturity of moral judgment of parents was not found to be significantly related to maturity of moral judgment of their children.This study was supported in part by Grant No. 13-11-01-00-053 (71) and Grant No. 13-01-00-53 (73) from the Minnesota Governor's Crime Commission.     

Developmental psychology in the real world: A paradigm of parent education

Twenty years ago, William Kessen, Greta Fein and I developed and tested a model of parent education, a model which involved variation in curricular content, didactic approaches, and child outcomes–experimentally contrasted. Our experience yielded some valuable lessons about the extent to which researchers can influence parents' behaviour, and parents their children's development. In the present article I suggest that these lessons might be useful for researchers now as they were for us then. I present some observations about the research that developmental psychologists have done in the intervening two decades and suggest that we could learn much by using such a model of parent education to answer questions about the effets of parents' behaviour on children's development. Carefully done, parent education studies can yield valuable information about many of the questions raised in recent correlational research. Parent training research can suggest hypotheses that can be tested with data collected non-interventively and analysed in causal model analyses–and vice versa. What is more, because one reason for studying parent effects is so that we can offer guidance to parents about rearing their children, this design has a particular advantage; it is both the medium and the message.     

Parent education in the public school: The parent and preschooler's program

The public school is discussed as a milieu in which to provide parent education for parents of preschool children. Primary prevention within the public school setting is designated as a means by which many children and families can be reached while the mental health of infants and young children is addressed as an integral concern of the community. The Parent and Preschooler's Program is described as an example of the implementation of a preschool parent education program in a public school which was initiated by community members and is eagerly supported by the school system.     

Group guidance on sex education

High school students participated in a group which was structured to emphasize the changes and problems associated with adolescence. The group was given the opportunity as a whole—as well as in segregated sections of boys and girls—to discuss various aspects of human sexuality. Among the major themes were sexual arousal in boys and girls, masturbation, development of sexual roles, and responsibility in sexual behavior. Individuals clarified their own values, feelings, and self-concepts through interaction with peers in a counseling atmosphere.     

The need for parent education: A survey of mothers in maternity wards

Parenting needs of 296 mothers in maternity wards were surveyed and examined on the basis of mother's age and employment status, number of previous children, and family social position. Half of the mothers felt they lacked sufficient information on parenting and nearly all indicated a desire for more information. The majority had obtained information on parenting from relatives. The information sources to be used in the future varied as a function of family social position and mother's employment status. A large majority of mothers indicated a desire for parent education programs in maternity wards and felt high school classes on parenting should be required for both girls and boys.     

A comparison of methods for assessing child compliance during behavioral parent training

The purpose of the present study was to compare four methods of computing child compliance to parental instructions. Four noncompliant boys, ages 2.5 to 7 years, participated with their mothers in behavioral parent training. In order to evaluate the training, observers recorded the boys' compliance responses in continuous 10-sec intervals. The boys' rates of compliant responding were then computed by considering behavior (A) only in the first interval following the instruction, (B) in the first three intervals following the instruction, (C) in all intervals while the instruction was ongoing, and (D) only in the final interval of the instructional trial. The findings indicated that the first three methods were correlated strongly with each other, although there were occasional differences in the levels of compliance indicated by these three methods. The implications of the findings and the merits of each of the four methods are discussed.     

Use of the Hereford Parent Attitude Survey as an outcome measure in parent education research

Research on outcome evaluation published since 1980 on the Hereford Parent Attitude Survey was reviewed in terms of sample size, type of parent training program used, and the scales' sensitivity to change in parental attitudes after intervention. Some support for the sensitivity of the Hereford was found, and, as an evaluation device to assess whether program goals have been achieved, the scale proved to be a useful instrument. The Hereford scale can be applied with reasonable confidence in research on parenting and in strategies to enhance effective parenting.     

Pregnant adolescents attending prenatal parent education classes: self-concept, anxiety and depression levels

Past research has indicated that pregnant adolescents who attend parent education programs (PEP) are more likely to have better outcomes after delivery than those who leave school. This study compared pregnant adolescents who attended a PEP (PA), those who did not attend a PEP (PC), and nonpregnant adolescents (NP) for differences in personality characteristics--self-concept, anxiety, and depression--which might account for postdelivery outcomes. On pre- and posttests administered four to six weeks apart, the PA did not indicate any changes over time and the groups did not differ significantly in self-concept and state and trait anxiety levels. Although the PA group showed a significantly higher level of depression on the pretest than did the NP group, they did not differ significantly at posttesting. According to demographic variables, the number of persons in household was significantly higher for the NP group than for the PA and PC groups. These results, not always consistent with past research on teenagers' personality characteristics, suggest: that the groups did not differ in terms of these personality characteristics, and that for these subjects (88% black), the tendency toward higher depression and anxiety levels in adolescence may not be significantly different from that experienced during pregnancy. The drawbacks of research in this area and for this project are discussed.     

Graduate education in qualitative methods in U.S. psychology: current trends and recommendations for the future

The visibility of qualitative research methods (QRM) in U.S. psychology has increased with the dissemination of qualitative research in journals and books, formation of professional and scientific organizations, and recognition in educational institutions. While gains have been made, the current state of doctoral training in qualitative methods remains uncertain. It is unclear what training graduate students receive in U.S. psychology programs about qualitative methodologies and how further gains can be made in expanding visibility of QRM in graduate education. In this mixed-methods study, we surveyed a sample of faculty in U.S. psychology graduate programs about the frequency of QRM course offerings, graduate training, and students’ use of QRM in their dissertation research. We also explored qualitative responses from faculty regarding their attitudes about QRM and how these attitudes might help increase or diminish the frequency of methods training available to students. We found that even within graduate programs where there was support for QRM, enduring perceptions about the value of qualitative research limit faculty and graduate students’ use of qualitative methodologies in their research. With these findings in mind, we offer several recommendations for increasing the visibility of QRM in U.S. graduate education and the discipline of psychology as a whole.     

Parent characteristics, economic stress and neighborhood context as predictors of parent involvement in preschool children's education

This study examines factors related to three dimensions of parent involvement in preschool: school-based involvement, home-based involvement, and the parent–teacher relationship. Participants were 154 predominantly African American parents recruited from two Head Start programs. Results of bivariate and canonical correlation analyses support the validity of a multi-dimensional, ecological conceptualization of parent involvement. Perceived context variables, including economic stress and neighborhood social disorder, related negatively to parent involvement. Parent characteristics, including sense of efficacy regarding education and level of education, related positively to parent involvement. Regression analyses detected different patterns of association between predictors and the three dimensions of parent involvement. Parent characteristics were associated with home involvement, while perceived context variables were predictive of the teacher–parent relationship. Implications of differential predictors for different domains of parent involvement and directions for future research and intervention with low-income families are discussed.