The objectives of this study were designing a Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy program with instrumental improvisation, applying the program to children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents, and testing the effectiveness of the...
The objectives of this study were designing a Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy program with instrumental improvisation, applying the program to children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents, and testing the effectiveness of the program. Specifically, this study aimed at improving the relationship between children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents and training the parents as the therapeutic partners of children with emotional and behavioral disorders through a Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy program applied instrumental improvisation. Going further, this study purposed to examine the effects of the program on the parenting‐related psychological characteristics of emotional‐behavioral disorders children’s parents, and on emotional‐behavioral disorder children’s self‐perception and their perception of the parents, and to identify changes caused by the program to child‐parent interaction.
In order to design a Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy program with instrumental improvisation, we first reviewed previous studies on emotional‐behavioral disorders, instrumental improvisation, Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy, etc., and through a preliminary study we finally formulated a program. The subjects of this study were elementary school children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents who had difficulty in child‐parent relationship, 9 child-parent pairs in the experimental group and another 9 in the control group. To the experimental group was applied the Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy program with instrumental improvisation. In the program, parent education was conducted through 10 sessions, once a week, and 2 hours in each session, and child‐parent instrumental improvisation, which began from the 3rd session of parent education, was conducted through 8 sessions, once a week, and 30 minutes in each session.
Data collected in this study were processed with SPSS 18.0, and analysis methods were as follows. First, the general characteristics of the subjects’ socio‐demographic background were analyzed through frequencies and percentages. Second, the difference in the pretest score of each scale between the experimental group and the control group was analyzed through Mann‐Whitney U Test, which is a nonparametric test. Third, the difference between the pretest score before the therapy program and the posttest score after in the experimental group and the control group was analyzed through Wilcoxon signed‐rank test, which is a nonparametric test. Fourth, changes in the therapeutic response of the children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents in the experimental group during the application of the program were examined through analysis, in observation scale, of the videos of the preliminary and 8 sessions of child‐parent instrumental improvisation, and Wilcoxon signed‐rank test, which is a nonparametric test. Fifth, changes in interaction between children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents during the application of the program were examined through analysis of the videos of child‐parent instrumental improvisation at the early, middle and late stages of the program.
The results of this study are summarized as follows.
First, Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy program with instrumental improvisation was found to have a positive effect on the parenting‐related psychological characteristics of emotional‐behavioral disorder children’s parents. After the program, the parents of the children with emotional and behavioral disorders in the experimental group showed a significant improvement in parental acceptance and parenting competence and a significant decrease in parenting stress. Second, the Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy program with instrumental improvisation was found to have a positive effect on emotional‐behavioral disorder children’s self‐perception and their perception of the parents. After the program, the children with emotional and behavioral disorders in the experimental group showed a positive change in their perception of the parents’ parenting behavior, and their self‐concept and self‐control were improved significantly. Third, the Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy program with instrumental improvisation was found to have a positive effect on the therapeutic response of children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents. After the program, both the children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents showed a positive change in their therapeutic response. Fourth, the Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy program with instrumental improvisation brought a positive change to interaction between children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents.
Accordingly, this study designed a Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy program with instrumental improvisation and applied it to children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents, and proved that the program was effective in changing the parents’ psychological characteristics related to parenting, the children’s self‐perception and perception of the parents, the children’s and the parents’ therapeutic response, and child‐parent interaction. With these results, this study has meanings as follows. First, the program of this study is meaningful in that it gives a practical help and provides opportunities for practice to emotional‐behavioral disorder children’s parents who have more difficulty in child‐parent relationship in the cycle of dysfunctional interaction, and that it trains the parents as therapeutic partners of their children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Second, while previous studies on Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy have been conducted mostly with ordinary children, this study targeted children with emotional and behavioral disorders and their parents, and produced a positive effect on their psychological and emotional difficulties. Third, this study used music, a medium not tried in previous studies, in order to minimize the subjects’ defensive attitude, help them try child‐parent interaction, and provide opportunities for children to express their negative emotions and cultivate self‐control. Fourth, this study is also meaningful in that it suggested a new approach, namely, training parents in music therapy for promoting interaction with their children.
Keywords: Children with emotional and behavioral disorders, emotional‐and behavioral disorder children’s parents, instrumental improvisation, Child‐Parent Relationship Therapy, child‐parent interaction