The development of an observation tool for use with parents with psychiatric disability and their preschool children

Community-based treatment and care of people with psychiatric disabilities has meant that they are now more likely to engage in the parenting role. This has led to the development of programs designed to enhance the parenting skills of people with psychiatric disabilities. Evaluation of these programs has been hampered by a paucity of evaluation tools. This study's aim was to develop and trial a tool that examined the parent-child interaction within a group setting, was functional and easy to use, required minimum training and equipment, and had acceptable levels of reliability and validity. The revised tool yielded a single scale with acceptable reliability. It had discriminative validity and concurrent validity with non-independent global ratings of parenting. Sensitivity to change was not investigated. The findings suggest that this method of evaluating parenting is likely to have both clinical and research utility and further investigation of the psychometric properties of the tool is warranted.

The messaging kettle: Prototyping connection over a distance between adult children and older parents

A prototype "messaging kettle" is described. The connected kettle aims to foster communication and engagement with an older friend or relative who lives remotely, during the routine of boiling the kettle. We describe preliminary encounters and findings from demonstrating a working prototype in morning tea gatherings of people in their 50s-late 70s and from introducing it into the homes of two people in their 80s who live on another continent. Key findings are that: The concept of keeping in touch around a "habituated object" such as a kettle was well received; Simple and varied interaction modalities that allow asymmetric forms of communication are needed; Designing for use across different time zones requires attention; And, that even when augmenting a habituated object, the process of introduction, appropriation and habituation still needs significant attention and investigation.

Parents' experiences of applied behaviour analysis (ABA)-based interventions for children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder

Applied behaviour analysis (ABA)-based programmes are endorsed as the gold standard for treatment of children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) in most of North America. This is not the case in most of Europe, where instead a non-specified 'eclectic' approach is adopted. We explored the social validity of ABA-based interventions with 15 European families who had experience with home-based, mainly self-managed, ABA-based programmes for their own child/ren with ASD. The results of the study highlighted the overwhelmingly positive impact that ABA-based interventions had on their children in areas such as social skills, challenging behaviour, communication, gross and fine motor skills, concentration, interaction, independence, overall quality of life and, most importantly, a feeling of hope for the future. Implications for European policy on ASD are discussed. © 2013 NASEN.

Migration background is associated with caries in Viennese school children, even if parents have received a higher education.

BACKGROUND A low level of education and the migration background of parents are associated with the development of caries in children. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a higher educational level of parents can overcome risks for the development of caries in immigrants in Vienna, Austria. METHODS The educational level of the parents, the school type, and the caries status of 736 randomly selected twelve-year-old children with and without migration background was determined in this cross sectional study. In children attending school in Vienna the decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) index was determined. For statistical analysis, a mixed negative-binomial-model was used. RESULTS The caries status of the children with migration background was significantly worse compared to that of the native Viennese population. A significant interaction was found between migration background and the educational level of the parents (p = 0.045). No interaction was found between the school type and either the migration background (p = 0.220) or the education level of the parents (p = 0.08). In parents with a higher scholarly education level, migration background (p < 0.01) and school type (p = 0.018) showed an association with DMFT values. In parents with a low education level, however, migration background and school type had no significant association with DMFT values. CONCLUSION These data indicate that children with a migration background are at higher risk to acquire caries than other Viennese children, even when the parents have received a higher education.

Parent-Child Interaction and Children's Self-Concept

This study is designed to investigate the relationships between marital communication, the quality of parents' ability to assist their children in joint problem-solving, and children's independent mastery attempts and perceived competence at problem-solving, and behavioral indicators of self-esteem. Couples' skill at regulating their own and their children's negative affect within the marital and parent-child family subsystems is hypothesized to predict the quality of their assistance, or scaffolding behavior, to their children during joint problem-solving. Further, the quality of parental scaffolding behavior is expected to predict children's independent mastery attempts, levels of perceived competence at problemsolving, and behavioral indicators of self-esteem. Families for the study will be those with children between 3 1/2 to six years of age recruited from subjects participating in a longitudinal study of communication in marriage being conducted at the Denver Center for Marital and Family Studies. Families will participate in three interaction tasks designed to tap parental scaffolding behavior during problemsolving with their children. Children will be administered self-report measures to tap their perceived competence at such problem-solving as those in the interaction tasks and parents will complete a questionnaire tapping the behavioral indicators of their child's self-esteem. Family interaction data will be coded with the use of a microanalytic coding system developed by this study, the Parent-Child Interaction Coding System. Marital communication data at three time points, premaritally, during the transition to parenthood , and concurrently, will be obtained from couples' interactions from the longitudinal study. The clinical significance of this study includes implications for training couples how to effectively regulate negative affect and offer their children sensitive assistance during joint problem-solving.

The development of an observation tool for use with parents with psychiatric disability and their preschool children

Community-based treatment and care of people with psychiatric disabilities has meant that they are now more likely to engage in the parenting role. This has led to the development of programs designed to enhance the parenting skills of people with psychiatric disabilities. Evaluation of these programs has been hampered by a paucity of evaluation tools. This study's aim was to develop and trial a tool that examined the parent-child interaction within a group setting, was functional and easy to use, required minimum training and equipment, and had acceptable levels of reliability and validity. The revised tool yielded a single scale with acceptable reliability. It had discriminative validity and concurrent validity with non-independent global ratings of parenting. Sensitivity to change was not investigated. The findings suggest that this method of evaluating parenting is likely to have both clinical and research utility and further investigation of the psychometric properties of the tool is warranted.

An analysis of Haitian parents' perceptions of their children with disabilities

Parental involvement is an integral part of the educational system in the U.S. Yet, parents from non-mainstream racial/ethnic backgrounds have not fully grasped the nature of parental involvement expectations in the educational process and how these expectations may impact student achievement. The purpose of this study was to identify Haitian parents’ perceptions of their children with disabilities and the education these children were receiving. Several authors have conducted studies on parents of children with disabilities to better gain an understanding of the level of their involvement with their children’s education, their perceptions of the children, and their views on the school system (Harry, 1992a, 1992b). In this study, Haitian parents of children with disabilities were interviewed using an interview protocol. Through these interviews, this study explored 10 Haitian parents’ perceptions of their child with a disability, the education the child was receiving, their interaction with the school system, and how the disability had affected their relationship with their child and their involvement with the school. Findings of the present study revealed that these Haitian parents seldom disagreed with school personnel and did not seem to fully grasp the different methods available to address their concerns as parents of children with disabilities nor the role they were expected to play in the process. The majority did not have basic literacy skills in Creole or English. The parents in this study were overwhelmed by school written communication. Additionally, this study discovered that parents’ perceptions were guided by two core concepts: coping mechanisms and locus of control. Parents with an internal locus of control, who tended to be more educated, focused inward to find solutions to problems encountered. Those with an external locus of control relied on outside influences to resolve their problems. Parental involvement was strongly influenced by their values, beliefs, customs, and conceptual knowledge about disability; all closely aligned with culture and acculturation. Overall, these parents’ perceptions greatly influenced their thoughts and behaviors when they realized that their children with disabilities might fall short of their immigrant dreams of success they held for these children.

An investigation of parents' and children's beliefs of early literacy acquisition from a cross -cultural perspective

It has been reported that the cultural-historical experiences of ethnic group members can play a role in the literacy beliefs of those members. Socioeconomic conditions can also influence the belief system of the groups' constituents. This study investigated parents' and children's beliefs pertaining to early literacy acquisition as related to the ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) of the participants. The objectives were to determine (a) the differential patterns regarding emergent literacy and traditional skills approaches as they interact with ethnicity and SES and (b) the correspondence between parents and children's beliefs about literacy acquisition. ^ The study was conducted with 152 parents (38 low-income Hispanic, 38 middle-income Hispanic, 38 low-income African-American, and 38 middle-income African-American) and 36 of their 3-, 4-, or 5-year-old children (18 male and 18 female). ^ The parents were asked to check those items with which they agreed on a survey that consisted of an equal number of items from the traditional skills-based and emergent literacy orientations. These responses were used to determine the differences and interaction by ethnicity and SES. The children responded to open-ended questions related to the instruction of reading and writing skills. The parents' responses and children's answers were compared to ascertain the matching parent-child dyads by ethnicity and SES. ^ An item analysis was conducted to strengthen the internal reliability consistency coefficient of the traditional skills-based and emergent literacy scales as measured by the Cronbach Alpha. ^ A two-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant difference in traditional skill-based beliefs for the low-income African-American and Hispanic parents. There were no significant findings for the parents' traditional skill based or emergent literacy beliefs based on ethnicity, for the interaction between ethnicity and SES, or for the relationship between parents' and children's literacy beliefs by ethnicity and SES. ^ It can be concluded that low-income African-American and Hispanic parents believe in the traditional skills approach, indicating that these parents find it necessary for children to have sufficient school readiness skills prior to learning to read or write. In addition, the parent and child dyads had a strong tendency toward emergent literacy beliefs. ^

An Analysis of Haitian Parents' Perceptions of Their Children With Disabilities

Parental involvement is an integral part of the educational system in the U.S. Yet, parents from non-mainstream racial/ethnic backgrounds have not fully grasped the nature of parental involvement expectations in the educational process and how these expectations may impact student achievement. The purpose of this study was to identify Haitian parents’ perceptions of their children with disabilities and the education these children were receiving. Several authors have conducted studies on parents of children with disabilities to better gain an understanding of the level of their involvement with their children’s education, their perceptions of the children, and their views on the school system (Harry, 1992a, 1992b). In this study, Haitian parents of children with disabilities were interviewed using an interview protocol. Through these interviews, this study explored 10 Haitian parents’ perceptions of their child with a disability, the education the child was receiving, their interaction with the school system, and how the disability had affected their relationship with their child and their involvement with the school. Findings of the present study revealed that these Haitian parents seldom disagreed with school personnel and did not seem to fully grasp the different methods available to address their concerns as parents of children with disabilities nor the role they were expected to play in the process. The majority did not have basic literacy skills in Creole or English. The parents in this study were overwhelmed by school written communication. Additionally, this study discovered that parents’ perceptions were guided by two core concepts: coping mechanisms and locus of control. Parents with an internal locus of control, who tended to be more educated, focused inward to find solutions to problems encountered. Those with an external locus of control relied on outside influences to resolve their problems. Parental involvement was strongly influenced by their values, beliefs, customs, and conceptual knowledge about disability; all closely aligned with culture and acculturation. Overall, these parents’ perceptions greatly influenced their thoughts and behaviors when they realized that their children with disabilities might fall short of their immigrant dreams of success they held for these children.

A longitudinal study comparing bereavement phenomena in recently bereaved spouses, adult children and parents

Objective: The study investigated previous research findings and clinical impressions which indicated that the intensity of grief for parents who had lost a child was likely to be higher than that for widows/widowers, who in turn were likely to have more intense reactions than adult children losing a parent. Method: In order to compare the intensities of the bereavement reactions among representative community samples of bereaved spouses (n = 44), adult children (n = 40) and parents (n = 36), and to follow the course of such phenomena, a detailed Bereavement Questionnaire was administered at four time points over a 13-month period following the loss. Results: Measures based on items central to the construct of bereavement showed significant time and group differences in accordance with the proposed hypothesis. More global items associated with the construct of resolution showed a significant time effect, but without significant group differences. Conclusions: Evidence from this study supports the hypothesis that in non-clinical, community-based populations the frequency with which core bereavement phenomena are experienced is in the order: bereaved parents bereaved spouses bereaved adult children.

Torres Strait Island parents' involvement in their children's mathematics learning : a discussion paper

This paper is a beginning point for discussing what the literature states about parents’ involvement in their children’s mathematics education. Where possible it will focus on Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Little is known about how Torres Strait Islander parents approach their children’s learning of mathematics and how important early mathematics is to mothers. What is known is that is they are keen for their children to receive an education that provides them with opportunities for their present and future lives. However, gaining access to education is challenging given that the language of instruction in schools is written to English conventions, decontextualised and disconnected from the students’ culture, community and home language. This paper discusses some of the issues raised in the literature about what parents are confronted with when making decisions about their children’s education.

What causes childhood leukaemia? Some beliefs of parents of affected children

The theories of parents about the cause of their children's leukaemia have been documented in the course of a case-control study. From a sample of 175 children who were diagnosed as having acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, 91.4% of their parents put forward their theories. Some of these theories were related clearly to material that had been published and therefore had some scientific validity. Other theories often had no apparent scientific basis. Persons who are involved in the care of children with leukaemia should be aware of the wide variety of theories that are held by their parents so that they may provide counselling which could be of help in the relief of feelings of anxiety or guilt among the parents. Parents should always be afforded the opportunity to put forward their own theories so that they may be discussed on a rational basis. It is conceivable that some parents might put forward new hypotheses about leukaemogenesis that could be tested scientifically.

Parents’ self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and self-reported task performance when managing atopic dermatitis in children: Instrument reliability and validity

BACKGROUND: Support and education for parents faced with managing a child with atopic dermatitis is crucial to the success of current treatments. Interventions aiming to improve parent management of this condition are promising. Unfortunately, evaluation is hampered by lack of precise research tools to measure change. OBJECTIVES: To develop a suite of valid and reliable research instruments to appraise parents' self-efficacy for performing atopic dermatitis management tasks; outcome expectations of performing management tasks; and self-reported task performance in a community sample of parents of children with atopic dermatitis. METHODS: The Parents' Eczema Management Scale (PEMS) and the Parents' Outcome Expectations of Eczema Management Scale (POEEMS) were developed from an existing self-efficacy scale, the Parental Self-Efficacy with Eczema Care Index (PASECI). Each scale was presented in a single self-administered questionnaire, to measure self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and self-reported task performance related to managing child atopic dermatitis. Each was tested with a community sample of parents of children with atopic dermatitis, and psychometric evaluation of the scales' reliability and validity was conducted. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A community-based convenience sample of 120 parents of children with atopic dermatitis completed the self-administered questionnaire. Participants were recruited through schools across Australia. RESULTS: Satisfactory internal consistency and test-retest reliability was demonstrated for all three scales. Construct validity was satisfactory, with positive relationships between self-efficacy for managing atopic dermatitis and general perceived self-efficacy; self-efficacy for managing atopic dermatitis and self-reported task performance; and self-efficacy for managing atopic dermatitis and outcome expectations. Factor analyses revealed two-factor structures for PEMS and PASECI alike, with both scales containing factors related to performing routine management tasks, and managing the child's symptoms and behaviour. Factor analysis was also applied to POEEMS resulting in a three-factor structure. Factors relating to independent management of atopic dermatitis by the parent, involving healthcare professionals in management, and involving the child in the management of atopic dermatitis were found. Parents' self-efficacy and outcome expectations had a significant influence on self-reported task performance. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that PEMS and POEEMS are valid and reliable instruments worthy of further psychometric evaluation. Likewise, validity and reliability of PASECI was confirmed.