This investigation was designed to determine the relationships among single parents' parental stress, empathy, level of acceptance, perception of child problems, and child gender, and the effect of filial therapy training on these relationships. Filial therapy is a parent training approach utilized by play therapists to train parents to be therapeutic agents of change with their own children using child-centered play therapy skills. Parents are taught and given support in a group format. Data from a previous filial therapy study with single parents was utilized in this investigation. Correlational research methods were employed to examine the relationships among the variables measured. Correlation coefficients were obtained between each of the following five variables: parental stress, level of acceptance, empathy, perceived problems of the child, and child gender. Additionally, multiple and logistic regression was utilized in search of a possible predictive model. Significant correlations were found between parental stress and acceptance, parental stress and perception of child problems, parental empathy and acceptance, parental empathy and perception of child problems, and between parental acceptance and perception of child problems. No significant correlations were found between child gender and any of the variables. Significant correlation changes were found in several of the measured variables (from pre- to post-) due to the filial therapy intervention. Regression analysis indicated that parental acceptance was predictive of parental empathy, parental empathy was predictive of parental acceptance, and parental stress was predictive of parental perception of problems. No significant findings of prediction were obtained with child gender. This study supports filial therapy as an effective intervention with single parents, as well as the appropriateness of the assessment instruments commonly used in filial therapy research. The results of this research provide insight into those areas of the parent-child relationship impacted by filial therapy, as well as the relationships between the variables measured.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc278773 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Sweeney, Daniel S. |
| Contributors | Landreth, Garry L., Baker, David B., Bratton, Sue |
| Publisher | University of North Texas |
| Source Sets | University of North Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | vi, 171 leaves, Text |
| Rights | Public, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved., Sweeney, Daniel S. |
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