Increasingly, behavioral health professionals are recognizing the need to involve parents and other significant family members in the treatment of children. However, often professionals and parents themselves may not feel comfortable with a more inclusive treatment approach. Parents own level of self-efficacy may inhibit or enhance the behavioral health care. Self-efficacy is defined by Bandura as a person's belief about his or her own abilities to produce designated levels of performance that can serve to influence events that affect their lives. This study investigated the relationship between parental self-efficacy and treatment outcomes for children with conduct problems. Using a secondary analysis of the data collected in the REACH Project, the relationship of parental self-efficacy, parenting skills, engagement, and parent-child relations with child outcomes was assessed. Also examined were the effects of changes in childs behaviors on parental self-efficacy. Findings from the path analysis of two mediational models suggest that parental self-efficacy is not a predictor of child outcomes as expected but that the parents level of engagement in treatment is predictive of the improvements children with conduct problems will make in treatment. Additionally, parental self-efficacy does not improve as a childs behavioral problems diminish although improvements in parenting skills are predictive of improvements in parental self-efficacy. Although this study has a number of limitations, it is a first step in identifying the relationships amongst parental characteristic and the outcomes of childrens behavioral health services. Discussion about how parents self-efficacy plays a role is offered.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04282006-115647 |
| Date | 05 May 2006 |
| Creators | Trunzo, Annette Catharine |
| Contributors | Esther Sales, Gary Koeske, David J. Kolko, Edward Sites |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04282006-115647/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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