Parent counseling as a means of change: A study of an Adlerian approach

Abstract

The study investigated the effectiveness of a parent education program at the Adlerian Institute for Parents located in Israel. The major hypothesis was that participation in the counseling program would improve children's behavior as perceived by their parents. The subjects were 69 parents (50 mothers and 19 fathers) who attended classes for eight months. The parents' behavioral perceptions were measured by the Family Relationship Index (FRI) questionnaire (Corsini, 1975(Corsini, , 1985. Following the intervention, parents perceived both their older and younger children as less difficult, both according to a global measure and regarding specific behavioral areas. However. in distinguishing between problematic and non-problematic children's behavior, the former were viewed as improved, whereas the latter evidenced a tendency toward a slight deterioration in behavior. The implications of the findings and directions for future research were discussed.