Examining the effects of parent education in a family resource center.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Family resource centers grew out of federal support in the late 1960's and early 1970's for demonstration projects for families at risk due to environmental variables such as poverty and young single parenthood. Funded through state initiatives in the 1980's and 1990's, family resource centers began expanding across the country. To date there has been little research on the benefits of parent education in family resource centers. This study examined the effects of a parent education class on 13 families receiving services from a family resource center. Twelve additional families served as the comparison group. Lessons from a research-based curriculum centered on parenting and self-nurturing comprised the parenting curriculum for the parent education class. Three quantitative measures were employed using a pre-posttest design. The Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2 (AAPI-2) and the Parental Locus of Control (PLOC) measured parenting behavior while the Parenting Stress Index/Short Form (PSI/SF) measured parent stress. Semi-structured interviews as well as weekly check-in questionnaires (intervention group only) were used to examine qualitative differences between the intervention and comparison groups.
In examining change in parenting behavior, an interaction effect was found on one of five AAPI-2 subscales, Oppressing Children's Power and Independence subscale, F (1, 23) = 3.584, p < .05. On the PLOC, an interaction effect was found on one of the five subscales, Parental Responsibility, F (1, 23) = 7.563, p < .05. No effects were found between the intervention and comparison groups in regards to parent stress, but means on the PSI/SF subscales and on the total score decreased from pretest to posttest for the intervention group, suggesting a reduction in parent stress; at the same time means scores for the comparison group increased over time, suggesting an increase in parent stress. Qualitative results suggested that parents in the intervention group were using strategies from the parenting class such as redirection, time out, and time in (i.e., spending quality time with children). Further research with larger numbers of parents is suggested.