The purpose of this study is to explore empowerment in Parent‑Child Interaction therapy (PCIT). Research has shown that attachment issues and child maltreatment are serious social problems that may lead to risks of child abuse and children developing mental illnesses. Interventions, like PCIT have shown to decrease these risks by improving the parent‑child interactions by enhancing parent skill levels and by decreasing parent stress levels and child behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine whether enhancing parent skills and decreasing parent stress levels would therefore increase parent empowerment. This study utilized a quantitative method to examine potential growth in parent empowerment. The current study consisted of 20 cases in which parents completed PCIT and had pre- and post- Dyadic parent‑child interaction coding system (DPICS) and Parent Stress Index (PSI) scores. Results indicated that PCIT enhanced parent skills but did not decrease stress levels as first hypothesized. Therefore, enhanced skills and decreased stress levels were found to not be a sufficient measure of parent empowerment. The PCIT literature has shown that PCIT successfully enhances parent skills, which in turn has shown to decrease the risk of child abuse. It is recommended that individual environmental factors and life stressors be considered in addition to the parents participating in PCIT to better enhance parent empowerment.

Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. Thirty five percent of Latinos who are currently children will be contributing taxpayers and will be having a great influence on the future economy. Immigrant Latino parents must overcome significant challenges to ensure their children’s well-being. The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges and resiliencies of Latino immigrant parents. This study examines the resources Latino immigrant parents lacked and what knowledge and parenting skills they already obtained. This study specifically looked at Latino immigrant parents and their specific needs regarding parental knowledge and resources. This study used a qualitative design accomplished through the use of face to face and phone interviews. This study conducted 15 interviews with first generation Latino immigrant parents who resided in Southern California who migrated to the United States and had at least one child born in the United States. One major finding of this study was that Latino immigrant parents could benefit from school resources for their children such as tutoring, assistance with the college admission program and assistance with applying for scholarships and financial aid. Another major finding was that language was one dominant challenge and barrier that Latino immigrant parents faced that affected their ability to cope with the U.S school system. Based on the findings of this study one of the recommendations is to produce a policy that mandates the U.S school system to have translation services available for Latino immigrant families.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur valda delar av forskningslitteraturen beskriver och diskuterar kring föräldrar med utvecklingsstörning. Vi fokuserade på den valda forskningslitteraturen utifrån tre teman: Föräldraförmågan hos utvecklingsstörda föräldrar, riskfaktorer för barn som växer upp med utvecklingsstörda föräldrar och stödet från samhället till föräldrar med utvecklingsstörning. Den metod som användes var en kunskapsöversikt som delvis tolkades hermeneutiskt. Resultatet av studien visar att de flesta föräldrarna var villiga att ta emot stöd av antingen professionella, anhöriga eller både och för att klara av sitt föräldraskap. Barn till utvecklingsstörda föräldrar kan vara en riskgrupp men behöver inte vara det. Resultatet som handlar om stödet från samhället visar att det är viktigt att föräldrarna erbjuds rätt stöd och att de blir bemötta på ett sådant sätt att de accepterar den hjälp som erbjuds.  Studiens resultat analyserades med hjälp av socialkonstruktionism och utvecklingsekologisk teori. Resultatet ligger i linje med tidigare forskning. / The aim of this study was to investigate how selected parts of the research literature describe and discuss issues concerning parents with intellectual disability. We focused on the selected research literature based on three themes: Parental ability of parents with intellectual disability, risk factors for children growing up with parents with intellectual disability and support from the community of parents with intellectual disability. The method used was a literature overview which was interpreted hermeneutically. The results of this study show that most parents were willing to receive the support of either professional, family, or both, to cope with their parenting. Children of parents with intellectual disability can be a risk group but need not be. The result, concerning the support from the community, shows that it is important that parents are offered the right support and that they are treated in such a way that they accept the help offered. Study results were analyzed with the help of social constructionism and the development of ecological theory. This outcome is consistent with previous research.

Synen på föräldrar med lindrig utvecklingsstörning har förändrats över tid. Den utveckling som skett har lett till att normaliseringsprincipen förutsätts gälla när människor med lindrig utvecklingsstörning blir föräldrar. Syftet med vår uppsats var att undersöka hur socialsekreterare förstår och arbetar med föräldrar som har en lindrig utvecklingsstörning där de misstänker att deras barn far illa. Vi har genomfört en kvalitativ studie i form av en fokusgruppsintervju med fem socialsekreterare som arbetar med utredning av barn. Resultatet visade på att socialsekreterarna upplever att föräldrar med lindrig utvecklingsstörning har vissa svårigheter i sin föräldraförmåga - som vilka föräldrar som helst. Samtidigt konstaterar socialsekreterarna att barnen till dessa föräldrar ofta är utsatta för ett flertal riskfaktorer. En av studiens viktigaste slutsatser är att det är känsligt och tabubelagt att ifrågasätta föräldraförmågan hos föräldrar med lindrig utvecklingsstörning. Detta medför ett hinder för socialsekreterarnas arbete med dessa familjer. / The perception of individuals with a mild intellectual disability as parents has changed over time. The devolpment has resulted in that the normalization principle is considered to be valid when these individuals become parents. This group of individuals has gone from being considered as incapable parents to being considered parents like anybody else. The purpose of this study was to examine the way social workers understand and work with this group of parents and their children if they suspect that the children is being maltreated. We conducted a qualitative study using a focusgroupinterview with five participants in whom all of them are social workers working with children and families that need support. The results show that social workers experience that parents with a mild intellectual disability have some problems in their parenting - like any other parent. They also experience that the children of these parents are exposed to several risk factors. An important conclusion of this essay is that it seems to be taboo to question parents with a mild intellectual disability's parenting skills. This makes it difficult for the social workers in their work with these families.

Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) is an effective teaching package that is often used to teach new parenting skills. While BPT has been established as efficacious in teaching parenting skills, performance often returns to baseline levels. There may be myriad reasons for this; however, it is possible that competing contingencies in difficult behavioral interactions, and long histories of practices that solve behavioral issues in the short term, affect parents’ ability to implement what they were taught. This study sought to impact parental treatment integrity of a common set of parent training practices via an Acceptance and Commitment Training protocol. Parents were exposed to a behavioral parent training workshop targeting three parenting tools. Follow up measures were collected on implementation integrity and rate of parental coercive behaviors. Low levels of parenting skill implementation integrity were observed during baseline. Following the BPT training phase, implementation of parenting skills showed an increasing trend while parental coercives decreased in level. For the parent who met mastery criteria for all three tools, a follow up period, in which no feedback or training was implemented, and a decrease in level in parenting skill implementation integrity was observed. Following this, the parent participated in an Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACTr) workshop consisting of experiential exercises, metaphors, and homework assignments. After the ACTr workshop, implementation of parenting skills showed a continued increasing trend toward mastery, and frequency of negative parent-child interactions showed a further decreasing trend, as well for all parents.

Children are vulnerable to sexual abuse while under the care and custody of their parents or caregivers for a number of reasons. Very often people ask the question of how does it happens that a child is been sexually abused in the care of responsible people and not protected against it. The vulnerability of children to be sexually abused can be minimised by caring and protective parents who are able to ensure that their children’s emotional needs, is been met. On the other hand children’s vulnerability to sexual abuse, can be increased by parents who are not emotional available or able to nurture their children. The goal of this study was to explore the relation between the quality of parenting skills and the vulnerability of children to sexual abuse. The researcher conducted a qualitative study through which the goal of this study is been achieved. Further research in this field is recommended to prevent sexual abuse of children. / Dissertation (MSD (Play Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Social Work / unrestricted

Youth psychotherapy literature is in need of more research related to understanding psychotherapy process and outcome in child psychotherapy in community settings. The purpose of this study was to examine how key parenting skills were associated with child and adolescent symptoms and outcomes over the course of treatment in an outpatient community mental health system. Much of the research on child and adolescent outcomes has been conducted in controlled research settings, which raises the importance of more research needing to be done in representative clinical practice conditions (Weisz & Jensen, 2001). Further, few child and adolescent studies have examined potential mechanisms of change in child and adolescent psychotherapy (Kazdin & Nock, 2003), including moderators and mediators of the relation between parenting skills and child and adolescent outcomes.Participants included 407 youth, ages 4-17 (mean age = 9.7 years), and their parents or guardians, receiving routine outpatient mental health services in a community mental health setting. The youth sample included 51% males, 49% females. Measures used included the Youth Outcome Questionnaire (Y-OQ; Burlingame, Wells, Lambert, & Cox, 2004; Burlingame et al., 2001), and the Treatment Support Measure (TSM). Data were collected starting at the intake session, each of the first five therapy sessions, then every three weeks thereafter for six months post-intake. Parenting Skills items from the TSM included domains of overreactivity, laxness, verbosity, monitoring, consistency, and positive reinforcement. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine changes in parenting behaviors and youth symptoms. Results indicated that parenting skills significantly improved over the course of treatment (p < .001) and best fit a logarithmic (natural log) function, such that most of the reported change in parenting skills occurred during the first few sessions of treatment. Further, there was a significant inverse relationship at intake between parenting skills and Y-OQ scores; specifically, lower parenting skills scores were associated with higher Y-OQ scores for parent and youth report (p < .001; p = .033). In addition, parenting skills at intake were associated with the subsequent rate of change of youth symptoms for parent report (p < .001) and youth report (p = .026). Lastly, improvements in parenting scores were associated with improved youth symptoms over the course of treatment for parent and youth report of symptoms (p = .021; p = .02). These findings can be generalized to other community outpatient settings and highlight the importance of attending to parenting skills as an avenue to improving child psychotherapy outcomes. Specifically, the results of this study emphasize the importance of parents implementing effective parenting skills and its influence on their child's overall symptoms at intake and outcomes in therapy.

The problem of this study was to determine the attitudes of teenagers toward early parenting. A fifty-two item questionnaire was given to 253 students enrolled in Homemaking I, Homemaking II, or Home and Family Living classes. Data are reported in five sections: teenagers' (1) attitudes about early parenting, (2) perceptions of child abuse and neglect, (3) beliefs about disciplining and punishment, (4) preparation for parenting skills, and (5) attitudes toward parenting education classes. Different results were obtained on measures of race, sex, and grade levels. Very few differences in attitudes were identified between ethnic groups and grade levels. Males and females differed in attitudes toward birth control and parenting tasks.

Parenting self-efficacy is one factor identified as relevant to parent distress and child therapy outcomes. Theories for parenting self-efficacy suggest parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may be at risk for lower parenting self-efficacy than other parents. Parents who have low parenting self-efficacy may then have higher risk for poor treatment outcomes. Previous researchers found inconsistent results related to parenting self-efficacy rates for parents of children with ASD. They suggested the results were due to sample sizes, measurement insensitivitiy, comparison groups, and the limited range of children's ages (Fields, 2006; Meirsschaut, Roeyers, and Warreyn, 2010; Palafox, 2004; and Rutgers et al., 2007). In the current study, the researchers invited 598 parents to complete a series of questionnaires. Participants included the parents of children with ASD (n = 57), Down syndrome (n = 24), ASD and Down syndrome (n = 41), emotional and behavioral disorders (n = 287), and no identified diagnoses (n = 189). The parents who participated were 90.2% female and 84.9% Caucasian. Participants from the ASD, ASD with Down syndrome, and Down syndrome groups lived in higher income households (75.2% above $30,000 annually) than those in the emotional and behavioral disorder group (94.1% below $30,000 annually). The questionnaires asked parents to rate themselves regarding parenting self-efficacy, parent distress, parenting skills, social support, and answered demographic questions. Parents from the diagnostic groups also rated their child's behavior and symptom severity. Parents from the ASD, Down syndrome, and ASD with Down syndrome groups answered additional questions found to be relevant in Fields, 2007 (e.g. age of symptom onset, number of siblings, and parent's age). Parents of children with ASD were found to have the lowest rates of parenting self-efficacy across the five groups. ANOVA rejected the null hypothesis that the groups would be the same (F = 8.24, df = 4, 595, p < .01, adjusted R² = .05). The effect size for the relationship between diagnosis and parenting self-efficacy was small to moderate, accounting for 5% of the variance of parenting self-efficacy scores. Pairwise comparisons between groups found parents of children with ASD to have significantly lower parenting self-efficacy than the Down syndrome (mean difference = -3.32, se = .81, 95% CI = -5.86, -.78), and community groups (mean difference = -2.89, se = .58, 95% CI = -4.47 to -1.31). Parents from the community group were also found to have higher parenting self-efficacy than the parents of children with emotional and behavioral disorders (mean difference = 1.43, se = .37, 95% CI = 1.31, 4.47). Parenting self-efficacy was also related to parent distress, social support, parenting skills, and child's age. Parenting self-efficacy may warrant monitoring in the treatment of ASD and may be an important point of intervention in therapy.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur socialarbetare på barn- och ungdomsavdelningen bedömer föräldrars omsorgsförmåga utifrån ett fiktivt fall. Vidare undersöks om det förekommer skillnader i bedömning angående föräldraförmågan utifrån ett genusperspektiv. Slutligen undersöks socialarbetares handlingsutrymme satt i relation till bedömningen. Studien baseras på en kvalitativ vinjettmetod som omfattar intervjuer med socialarbetare, där intervjuerna har utgått från konstruerade fallbeskrivningar, som är typiska för barnavårdsutredningar. Hälften av deltagarnas intervjuer utgår från en vinjett och hälften från en annan, men vinjetterna är detsamma förutom att föräldrarnas könstillhörighet är utbytta. Social konstruktionism tillämpas som vetenskaplig utgångspunkt i studien, vilken även används som ett teoretiskt begrepp i samspel med rollteori och genusteorier samt handlingsutrymme med lagstiftning. Resultatet visar att det förekommer skillnad i bedömning mellan vinjetterna, där samma egenskap upplevs olika beroende på förälderns könstillhörighet, vilket kan tyda på att synen på mödrar respektive fäder är olika. Det framkommer även att brister framhävs tydligare än förmågor samt att mödrar riskerar att anklagas för bristande omsorg av barn, men att det ändå är mödrar som har fördel i barnavårdsutredningar. Det kan medföra ojämlika bedömningar, där en anledning till åtskillnader och framhävandet av brister kan vara det snäva handlingsutrymmet som socialarbetarna befinner sig i. / The aim of this study was to examine how social workers on child and youth department assess a child’s parents based on a fictive case. Further, the aim was also to examine whether there are differences in assessment regarding the parenting skills based on a gender perspective. Finally, the aim was to examine the flexibility that social workers have in relation to their assessment. This study is based on a qualitative vignette methodology including interviews with social workers, where the interviews are based on a constructed case study, which are typical for child welfare investigations. Half of the participant’s interviews are based on one vignette and half on another, but the vignettes are the same except that the parent’s gender is changed with each other. Social constructionism is applied as a scientific base of the study, which is also used as a theoretical concept in interaction with role theory and gender theories and discretion with laws. The results show that there is differences in assessment between the vignettes, where the same characteristics are assessed differently depending on the parent's gender, which may indicate that the experience of mothers and fathers are different. It also shows that flaws are emphasized more clearly than abilities and that mothers may be accused of lack of care of the children, but still mothers have advantage in child welfare investigations. This can cause unequal assessments, where a reason for differences and the emphasis of flaws may be the tight discretion that social workers find themselves in.