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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

A qualitative study of Parent to Parent support for parents of children with special needs. Consortium to evaluate Parent to Parent.

OBJECTIVE: To examine qualitatively the experiences of parents participating in Parent to Parent programs. METHOD: Twenty-four parents of children with special needs, a subset of subjects in a larger quantitative study, participated in a semi-structured telephone interview to explore the impact and meaning of being matched with a trained supporting parent. RESULTS: Qualitative analysis reveals a successful match is contingent upon creation of a "reliable ally" in the supporting parent, comprised of four main components: (1) perceived sameness, (2) situational comparisons that enable learning and growth, (3) round-the-clock availability of support, and (4) mutuality of support. CONCLUSIONS: Parent to Parent support creates a community of similar others trained to listen and be supportive and provides an opportunity for matched parents to experience equality and mutuality in their relationship. Findings also identify the need for quality control in Parent to Parent programs and the importance of such programs as an adjunct to traditional professional services.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Group-based parent-training programmes for improving emotional and behavioural adjustment in 0-3 year old children.

BACKGROUND: Mental health problems in children are common. Research suggests that parenting has an important role to play in helping children to become well adjusted adults, and that the first few months and years of a child's life are especially important in establishing patterns of emotional, cognitive and social functioning which will in turn influence the child's future development and in particular, their mental health. Parenting programmes may therefore have a role to play in improving the mental health of infants and toddlers. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this review are as follows: a) To establish whether group-based parenting programmes are effective in improving the mental health of children less than three years of age b) To assess the role of parenting programmes in the primary prevention of mental health problems SEARCH STRATEGY: A range of biomedical and social science databases were searched including MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychLIT, Sociofile, Social Science Citation Index, ASSIA, the Cochrane Library including SPECTR, CENTRAL, National Research Register (NRR) and ERIC. SELECTION CRITERIA: Only randomised controlled trials were included and studies had to include at least one standardised instrument measuring some aspect of infant mental health. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: The treatment effect for each outcome in each study was standardised by dividing the mean difference in post-intervention scores for the intervention and treatment group, by the pooled standard deviation, to obtain an effect size. The results for each outcome in each study have been presented with 95% confidence intervals. Where appropriate the results have been combined in a meta-analysis using a random effect model. MAIN RESULTS: A total of five studies were included in the review. The 5 included studies provided a total of 36 assessments of infant and toddler mental health including emotional and behavioural adjustment, and sleep patterns. All of the results apart from 6 showed positive findings favouring the intervention group. While some of findings were non-significant, most of the effect sizes were large and the wide confidence intervals crossing the zero that were obtained in a number of the studies, were very probably due to small sample sizes. There was sufficient data from four studies to combine the results in a meta-analysis. The results of the meta-analysis show a significant difference in children's emotional and behavioural adjustment favouring the intervention group. Overall, the limited follow-up data provide equivocal evidence concerning the maintenance of these effects over time. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS: The results of this review suggest that parenting programmes can be effective in improving the mental health of infants and toddlers. There is, however, insufficient evidence to reach any firm conclusions regarding the role that such programmes might play in the primary prevention of mental health problems. Furthermore, there is insufficient evidence to know whether the short-term benefit of these programmes is maintained over time, and further research is required.

Child Development↗

A comparison between parents of children with cochlear implants and parents of children with hearing aids regarding parental distress and treatment expectations.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to compare the parents of children with a hearing aid (HA) and children with a cochlear implant (CI) regarding their psychological distress, their expectations from treatment, their family climate, and the way they first obtained information on HA/CI. METHODS: 154 parents (return quota 41%; 81 mothers and 73 fathers) of 90 children with a HA and 103 parents (return quota 59%; 57 mothers and 46 fathers) of 57 children with a CI were interviewed by means of a questionnaire. RESULTS: Both groups of parents felt distressed, particularly at the time of diagnosis. Their psychological well-being was gradually stabilized in the further course of rehabilitation. Due to the operation associated with it, fitting with a CI brought on a phase of heightened parental psychological distress compared with less invasive treatment with a HA. Regarding family climate, more distress was found in parents of CI children than in parents of HA children. Expectations from therapy appeared realistic in both parental groups; however, after CI fitting, the parents of the CI children showed heightened expectations by comparison with the parents of the HA children. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study suggest that the parents of hearing impaired children fitted with a HA or a CI may be divided into two subgroups with divergent psychosocial parameters. For the counseling of the parents of hearing impaired children in clinical practice, it would seem important to take these specific differences into consideration.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Culture, stress and the parent-child relationship: a qualitative study of parents' perceptions of parenting.

UNLABELLED: This qualitative research project, based on the principles of grounded theory, has used a series of semi-structured interviews with parents to explore parental understanding of the culture in which today's children are growing up, the influences of that culture on their parenting and the potential impact on their child. METHODS: Sixteen mothers and one father whose children are participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children were interviewed. The interviews covered various aspects of parenting and culture. Data from the transcribed interviews were analysed for emerging themes relating to parenting and areas where parenting can go wrong. These themes were developed further through an understanding of the literature on parenting and families. RESULTS: Analysis of the data suggested several key areas in which our culture imposes particular stresses on parents and, as such, does not support families or children. Prominent areas of stress were time pressures, particularly in the work-home arena, expectations of children to be active and achieving, financial pressures and the impact of consumerism on families. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest that parents, although holding a very positive view of their children, do perceive parenting as being stressful. This is exacerbated by social structures and attitudes that do not value or support children and their families.

Adult↗

Parental monitoring, negotiated unsupervised time, and parental trust: the role of perceived parenting practices in adolescent health risk behaviors.

PURPOSE: To compare two different parenting practices (parental monitoring and negotiated unsupervised time) and perceived parental trust in the reporting of health risk behaviors among adolescents. METHODS: Data were derived from 692 adolescents in 9th and 10th grades (x = 15.7 years) enrolled in health education classes in six urban high schools. Students completed a self-administered paper-based survey that assessed adolescents' perceptions of the degree to which their parents monitor their whereabouts, are permitted to negotiate unsupervised time with their friends and trust them to make decisions. Using gender-specific multivariate logistic regression analyses, we examined the relative importance of parental monitoring, negotiated unsupervised time with peers, and parental trust in predicting reported sexual activity, sex-related protective actions (e.g., condom use, carrying protection) and substance use (alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana). RESULTS: For males and females, increased negotiated unsupervised time was strongly associated with increased risk behavior (e.g., sexual activity, alcohol and marijuana use) but also sex-related protective actions. In males, high parental monitoring was associated with less alcohol use and consistent condom use. Parental monitoring had no affect on female behavior. Perceived parental trust served as a protective factor against sexual activity, tobacco, and marijuana use in females, and alcohol use in males. CONCLUSIONS: Although monitoring is an important practice for parents of older adolescents, managing their behavior through negotiation of unsupervised time may have mixed results leading to increased experimentation with sexuality and substances, but perhaps in a more responsible way. Trust established between an adolescent female and her parents continues to be a strong deterrent for risky behaviors but appears to have little effect on behaviors of adolescent males.

Adolescent↗

Parent drug use, parent personality, and parenting.

This study examined the relationship of parent drug use and specific parent personality traits with four indicators of the parent-child bond: affection, child-centeredness, involvement, and nonconflictual relations. The participants (N = 71) were young mothers or fathers who have participated in a longitudinal study of 1,000 children and their parents from 1975 to the present. They answered a self-administered questionnaire about themselves and their oldest child. Regression analyses indicated that the domains of parent drug use and parent personality had independent effects on most of the parent-child variables. Specific parent personality traits buffered the effect of drug use on aspects of the bond. The implications of these findings are that reducing parental drug use can have direct and positive effects on the bond and can enhance some parent personality traits, thus strengthening the bond. Protective personality characteristics can mitigate the impact of drug use on the bond.

Adult↗

Distress and hopelessness among parents of children with congenital heart disease, parents of children with other diseases, and parents of healthy children.

OBJECTIVE: We examined differences in distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, and somatisation) and hopelessness (e.g., suicide ideation) among parents of congenital heart disease (CHD) children (PCCHD, n=1092), parents of children with other diseases (PCOD, n=112), and parents of healthy children (PHC, n=293). In addition, we determined the proportion of parents in each group whose scores in distress and hopelessness, respectively, exceeded norms for psychiatric outpatients (POPN) and depressed people, and identified determinants of distress and hopelessness among all parents, and the PCCHD. METHOD: The parents completed a questionnaire about such areas as distress and hopelessness. The design was cross-sectional and data were collected during 20 consecutive days. RESULTS: PCCHD were generally at higher risk of distress and hopelessness. A significant number of parents, in particular PCCHD, reported levels of distress and hopelessness within/above POPN and depressed people, respectively. Mothers within all parent groups had higher levels of distress and hopelessness than fathers, with the highest levels among mothers of children with CHD compared to mothers in the other groups. Fathers of children with CHD were doing worse than fathers belonging to the other groups. There were no differences between PCOD and PHC. Variables such as employment status and financial situation explained more of the variation in distress and hopelessness among parents than the diseases of their children. CONCLUSION: We corroborated previous findings and provide new insights into the experiences of PCCHD that may be of importance when considering intervention. Further research concerning the parents, in particular PCCHD, at risk of developing psychosocial problems is needed.

Adult↗

Middle-class African American adolescents' and parents' conceptions of parental authority and parenting practices: a longitudinal investigation.

Conceptions of parental authority and ratings of parental rules and decision making were examined longitudinally among 82 middle-class African American adolescents and their parents (82 mothers and 52 fathers), who were divided into two groups according to family income. Adolescents were, on average, 13.14 years of age at Time 1 and 15.05 years of age at Time 2. Nearly all adolescents and parents affirmed parents' legitimate authority to regulate (and children's obligation to comply with) rules regarding moral, conventional, prudential, friendship, and multifaceted issues, but they were more equivocal in their judgments regarding personal issues. With age, adolescents increasingly judged personal issues to be beyond the bounds of legitimate parental authority, but judgments differed by family income. Adolescents from upper income families rejected parents' legitimate authority to regulate personal issues more at Time 1 than did adolescents from middle income families, but no differences were found at Time 2. Authority to regulate adolescents' behavior did not extend to other adults or to schools, churches, and the law. With adolescents' increasing age, African American families became less restrictive in regulating prudential, friendship, multifaceted, and personal issues. Adolescents', mothers', and fathers' judgments demonstrated significant continuity over time, but few cross- or within-generation associations in judgments were found. Conceptions of legitimate parental authority at Time 1 were found to predict family rules at Time 2.

Adolescent↗

Families of borderline patients: literal-minded parents, borderline parents, and parental protectiveness.

While borderline personality disorder is a well-established psychiatric diagnosis, less is known about family functioning and interactional patterns in subjects with the disorder. The authors describe interactional patterns in families of borderline children where one parent has a severe personality disorder and the other fails to protect the child adequately against the effects of that psychopathology. Two types of parents are described: the literal-minded parent and the borderline parent. The literal-minded parent resembles an alexithymic patient, lacking the ability to empathically understand and respond to the child's feelings and needs. The borderline parent uses the child as the target of projections and reality distortions. Therapy should mobilize the active protective functions of the healthier parent.

Adult↗

Parent partners: a parent-to-parent support program in the NICU. Part II: Program implementation.

A well-organized parent-to-parent support program can provide both support and resources to help parents deal with the stress of having a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In order to implement a support program, hospital personnel must commit to the program, volunteer parents must be recruited and trained, and ongoing parent-professional collaboration must support program growth and maintenance. The Parent Partners Program offers a parent training curriculum and suggested procedures to establish a program.

Curriculum↗

Attachment styles and personality disorders: their connections to each other and to parental divorce, parental death, and perceptions of parental caregiving.

Attachment theory was explored as a means of understanding the origins of personality disorders. We investigated whether adult attachment styles and personality disorders share a common underlying structure, and how both kinds of variables relate to family background factors, including parental death, parental divorce, and current representations of childhood relationships with parents. A nonclinical group of 1407 individuals, mostly adolescents and young adults, were surveyed about their attachment styles, parental marital status, parental mortality status, perceptions of treatment by parents in childhood, and 13 personality disorders. Results indicated substantial overlap between attachment and personality-disorder measures. Two of the personality-disorder dimensions are related to the two dimensions of the attachment space; that is, there is a two-dimensional space in which both the attachment patterns and most of the personality disorders can be arrayed. The one personality-disorder factor that is unrelated to attachment appears akin to psychopathy. Both personality disorders and attachment styles were associated with family-of-origin variables. Results are discussed in terms of encouraging further research to test the idea that insecure attachment and most of the personality disorders share similar developmental antecedents.

Adult↗

Ratings of parent behaviours for delinquents from two-parent and single-parent homes.

Mother and son ratings of parent behaviours on the dimensions of loving, demanding and punishing, using the Bronfenbrenner Parent Behaviour Questionnaire, were compared for juvenile delinquents from two-parent and single-parent homes respectively. Mean rating for all variables were in the average range, and little difference in ratings of mothers' behaviours was found, for either boys or mothers, between the single-parent and two-parent groups. These findings are in contrast to the frequently suggested link between delinquency and disturbed family interactions.

Adolescent↗

Effects of parent training on infant sleeping patterns, parents' stress, and perceived parental competence.

First-time parent couples from childbirth classes were randomly assigned to a four-session training group (n = 29) or a control group (n = 31). Members of the training group were taught behavioral strategies to promote healthy, self-sufficient sleep patterns in their infants, whereas the control group received the same amount of personal contact without the behavioral training. Six sleep variables were derived from a daily infant sleep diary completed by parents at two time points. Results show that at age 6-9 weeks, infants in the training group displayed significantly better sleeping patterns than did control infants. Training group parents awakened and responded less often to infant signaling and reported greater parental competence. By contrast, control group parents indicated increased stress over time.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

Beyond parental control and authoritarian parenting style: understanding Chinese parenting through the cultural notion of training.

This study addresses a paradox in the literature involving the parenting style of Asians: Chinese parenting has often been described as "controlling" or "authoritarian". These styles of parenting have been found to be predictive of poor school achievement among European-Americans, and yet the Chinese are performing quite well in school. This study suggests that the concepts of authoritative and authoritarian are somewhat ethnocentric and do not capture the important features of Chinese child rearing, especially for explaining their school success. Immigrant Chinese and European-American mothers of preschool-aged children were administered standard measures of parental control and authoritative-authoritarian parenting style as well as Chinese child-rearing items involving the concept of "training." After controlling for their education, and their scores on the standard measures, the Chinese mothers were found to score significantly higher on the "training" ideologies. This "training" concept has important features, beyond the authoritarian concept, that may explain Chinese school success.

Adult↗

Divorce process variables and the co-parental relationship and parental role fulfillment of divorced parents.

This study examines the association between two sets of divorce process variables, a) initiation of and responsibility for the divorce and b) difficulty and duration of the legal procedure, and divorced spouses' co-parental relationship and parental functioning. In a random sample of 50 former couples, in Israel, findings showed that the longer and more conflictual the legal proceedings, the worse the coparental relationship in the view of both parents. They also showed that mothers' parental functioning was not significantly associated with any of the divorce variables, but fathers' were. The more responsibility the father assumed for the divorce and the more he viewed himself as the initiator, the more he fulfilled his parental functions. The findings are interpreted in the discussion, and their theoretical and practical implications considered.

Adolescent↗

Construction and validation of four childhood asthma self-management scales: parent barriers, child and parent self-efficacy, and parent belief in treatment efficacy.

This study examined the psychometric properties of four new health belief measures for asthmatic children and their parents. A total of 110 asthmatic children (aged 7-15) and 129 parents (with asthmatic children aged 3-15) responded to a mail-out survey. Evidence for reliability (0.75-0.87) and validity was obtained for measures of Parent Barriers to Managing Asthma, Parent Asthma Self-Efficacy (subscales: attack prevention and attack management), Parent Treatment Efficacy, and Child Asthma Self-Efficacy (subscales: attack prevention and attack management). All measures were correlated in the hypothesized directions with health status, asthma symptoms, and impact of illness on the family.

Adolescent↗

Parent Partners: a parent-to-parent support program in the NICU. Part 1: Program development.

Neonatal intensive care units (NICU) face the challenge of developing family-centered systems of service delivery. An important component of family-centered care is parent-to-parent support. A parent-to-parent support program that meets the needs of both parents and staff can be successfully established in the NICU if the principles of planned change are used to guide the process of program development, implementation, and evaluation.

Health Services Needs and Demand↗

Coping strategies and parental attitudes, a comparison of parents with children with autistic spectrum disorders and parents with non-autistic children.

This study focused on the coping strategies of parents' with children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and the relation between these strategies and parenting styles. Coping strategies were measured using the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC) and the Purpose in Life Test (PIL-R). Parental attitudes toward loving care, stress, worry, and guilt feelings were assessed using the Family Impact Questionnaire. Two groups of participants were included: parents with children with ASD (EG) (n = 66) and a matched control group (CG) (n = 66). Paired Samples t-Test and Pearson's r correlation were used as methods of analysis. Main results distinguished significant (p < .001 to .003) differences between the EG and CG for almost all variables included. The M level of coping strategy was much higher for the CG than for the EG. SOC showed a stress-reducing effect in both the EG and CG. PIL-R explained 50% of the variance in SOC for the EG and 33% for the CG. The only significant gender difference in the EG was on SOC indicating a higher sense of coherence among the fathers and probably an indicator of a stronger burnout effect of the mothers.

Adaptation, Psychological↗