LENGTH OF TIME recommended
FOR PARENTING EDUCATION TO HAVE IMPACT
Dana
McDermott, Ph.D. ©2002
This is
taken from a draft of a publication in preparation by D. McDermott entitled "Parenting
education from k-12: Theoretical and empirical background and support."
Portions of this material were prepared with support from
References
are listed at www.preparetomorrowsparents.org/references.htm
From Reppucci (1997) “In
addition, Powell argued for the implementation of programs with sustained
contacts (i.e., at least 3 months) in order to achieve the most pervasive and
sustained effects on family functioning. This recommendation calls into
question the effectiveness of short parent education classes that are not
accompanied by long-term follow-up or other contacts.” (p.
34) See Powell, D. (1989) Families and early childhood programs.
From Tomison (1998) “Overall,
the committee concluded that it was unrealistic to expect a short-term parent
skills program in isolation to create lasting change (Chalk & King 1998).”
(pp. 22-23) According to Chalk and King, “ The
intensity of the social support services required may be greater than initially
estimated in order to address the fundamental sources of conflict, stress and
violence that occur repeatedly over time in the family environment, especially
in disadvantaged communities. Focusing as they do on single incidents and short
periods of support, the interventions in this area may be inadequate to deal
with problems that are pervasive, multiple and chronic.” (p. 102).
From Luster and Youatt (1989) “…the
results of this study suggest that pre-parenthood education is one service that
shows considerable promise as a way of helping adolescents prepare for the
parenting role. However, given what we know about intervention programs
generally, we would hope that pre-parenthood education would be viewed as part
of a series of services for parents and parent-to-be rather than a one time
‘inoculation’ against poor parenting practices. It seems highly unlikely that a
one- semester course in high school can provide all the information and support
that young people need in order to provide optimal care for the next generation
of children, but it seems to provide a push in the right direction.” (p. 13).
From Brown (1998) “One reason
that relatively small gains for both children and parents have been found in
some two- generation programs is that program delivery is not intense enough to
bring about the desired change within the allotted time (Ramey & Ramey,
1998). The beliefs that drive parenting practices change slowly—if indeed
parents want to change (Thomas, 1996). Program planners face the dilemma of
providing the level of intensity that is necessary to reach the goals, knowing
that hard to reach parents often are not willing or able to make that
commitment. Many factors influence participation, enthusiasm and compliance.”
(p. 10).
From Parke et al. (1980) produced a videotape of
fathers feeding, changing and playing with their infant children as a means of
enhancing fathers’ skills. The results suggested fathers who viewed the tapes were more
knowledgeable and affectionate and displayed increased care-giving behaviors.
Thus, things may be different for males than females in that males are more
open to influence in an area for which they do not feel expert.
From Thomas (1996) Critics have claimed, for
example, that simply providing parents with information about children’s
development and teaching parenting as a collection of skills is not likely to
affect deeper, critical parenting perspectives (Bromwich, 1981).
Return to Index of Theory and Rationale