Adapting Behavioral Parent Training as an Interactive Computer Game

Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) is a well-established therapy that reduces child externalized behaviors and parent stress. Although BPT was originally developed for parents of children with defiant behaviors, the program’s key concepts are relevant to parenting all children. Since parents might not fully utilize BPT due to cost and program location, we created an online game as a low-cost, easily accessible alternative or complement to BPT. We tested the game with nineteen undergraduate students at the University of Maryland. The experimental group completed pretest survey on core BPT knowledge, played the game, and completed a BPT posttest, while the control group completed a pretest and posttest survey over a three week period. Participants in the experimental group also completed a survey to indicate their satisfaction with the overall program. The experimental group demonstrated significantly higher levels of BPT knowledge than the control group and high levels of satisfaction. This suggests that an interactive, online BPT platform is an engaging and accessible way for parents to learn key concepts.

The consequences of child-parent violence reflected in a life story

A process of social transformation allied with ongoing changes to the family has made possible the existence of a relatively little-known phenomenon: that of child-parent violence, which is raised as one of the most commonly experienced forms of violence in the family environment. Based on the study of this phenomenon, in our research we have used the qualitative technique of a life story, making use of a field diary in which we have taken notes on our daily work in the therapeutic context, for the purposes of mitigating the effects of such a process. The following research objectives were set: establishing the connection existing between family education style and the use of violence by the minor; and evaluating the extent to which family therapy mitigates the use of violence by the minor. The family education model, together with other dimensions, results in situations of child-parent violence occurring repeatedly, with continuing negative reinforcement from both parties in order to maintain a recurrent cycle of conduct, from which it is difficult to «escape» other than through a process of ongoing psychological therapy.

Parent education and home-based behaviour analytic intervention: an examination of parents' perceptions of outcome

There is convincing evidence that applied behaviour analysis (ABA) offers a highly effective form of intervention for children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). There is less evidence, however, about how parents perceive and evaluate ABA programmes. In this paper an examination of parents’ perceptions of outcome is reported. Twenty-two questionnaires were completed by two groups of parents. The first group had just completed an introductory course in ABA and were in the early stages of implementing ABA programmes with their children. The second group had been involved in ABA education for more than 2 years. Overall, both groups of parents reported a positive impact of ABA on the lives of their children, their family life, and themselves. The long- term group reported that they had achieved complex goals with their children, whilst the short-term group reported an immediate positive impact on child and family functioning and parental self-esteem. Conclusions are drawn in the context of evidence-based practice.

Determinants of Child-Parent Agreement in Quality-of-Life Reports: A European Study of Children With Cerebral Palsy

OBJECTIVES: The differences between child self-reports and parent proxy reports of quality of life in a large population of children with cerebral palsy were studied. We examined whether child characteristics, severity of impairment, socioeconomic factors, and parental stress were associated with parent proxy reports being respectively higher or lower than child self-reports of quality of life. METHODS. This study was conducted in 2004–2005 and assessed child quality of life (using the Kidscreen questionnaire, 10 domains, each scored 0–100) through self-reports and parent proxy reports of 500 children aged 8 to 12 years who had cerebral palsy and were living in 7 countries in Europe. RESULTS: The mean child-reported scores of quality of life were significantly higher than the parent proxy reports in 8 domains, significantly lower for the finances domain, and similar for the emotions domain. The average frequency of disagreement (child-parent difference greater than half an SD of child scores) over all domains was 64%, with parents rating their child’s quality of life lower than the children themselves in 29% to 57% of child-parent pairs. We found that high levels of stress in parenting negatively influenced parents’ perception of their child’s quality of life, whereas the main factor explaining parents’ ratings of children’s quality of life higher than the children themselves is self-reported severe child pain. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the factors associated with disagreement are different according to the direction of disagreement. In particular, parental wellbeing and child pain should be taken into account in the interpretation of parent proxy reports, especially when no child self-report of quality of life is available. In the latter cases, it may be advisable to obtain additional proxy reports (from caregivers, teachers, or clinicians) to obtain complementary information on the child’s quality of life.

Parent-offspring conflict and motivational control of brooding in an amphipod (Crustacea)

Models of parent - offspring conflict concerning levels of caregiving centre on conflict resolution by offspring control, compromise or offspring 'honest signalling' that parents use to maximize their own fitness. Recent empirical studies on motivational control of parental feeding of offspring are interpreted as supporting the latter model. Here, we examine parental care in an amphipod, Crangonyx pseudogracilis, which directs care to embryos in a brood pouch. Embryo removal and transplantation elucidated causal factors that determine levels of caregiving. In the short-term, females with all embryos removed reduced care activities, but partial embryo removal did not affect caregiving, evidence of 'unshared' parental care. In the long-term, females with all embryos removed ceased care. Thus, females have a maternal state that is maintained by stimuli from offspring. Transplantation of early/late stage embryos among females originally carrying early/late stage embryos revealed that stimuli from embryos indicate their age-dependent needs, but only modify caregiving within the constraints of a changing endogenous maternal state. Thus, we demonstrate that mothers and offspring share motivational control of care. However, we highlight the inappropriate use of motivational data in reaching conclusions about the resolution of parent - offspring conflict.

Parent-off spring associations in wintering brent geese: parental investment or mutual assistance?

The continued parent-offspring associations in the Eastern Canadian High Arctic light-bellied brent goose Branta bernicla hrota was examined to determine whether this is an example of continued parental investment or mutual assistance. Adults with juveniles spend more than twice as much time being vigilant and aggressive than do those without offspring. The loss of a partner, however, does not result in the remaining parent increasing parental care but does result in increased 'self-care' by the juveniles. Neither parents nor single-parent juveniles appear to pay an energetic cost relative to non-parental adults and two-parent juveniles, respectively. Differences in the feeding distribution of parents and non-parents and equivalent or better physical condition suggests that families are able to maintain access to a superior food supply over the winter. Passive 'assistance' by juveniles may assist in maintaining this position in favoured areas, and this is achieved with little overt aggression. The present study thus provides no data that show a net cost to parents by remaining with their juveniles over the winter period. Thus, mutual assistance might be a better explanation of the prolonged association rather than a period of parental investment with an overall cost.