Parents' assessment of parent-child interaction interventions – a longitudinal study in 101 families

Abstract

BackgroundThe aim of the study was to describe families with small children who participated in parent-child interaction interventions at four centres in Sweden, and to examine long term and short term changes regarding the parents' experience of parental stress, parental attachment patterns, the parents' mental health and life satisfaction, the parents' social support and the children's problems.MethodsIn this longitudinal study a consecutive sample of 101 families (94 mothers and 54 fathers) with 118 children (median age 3 years) was assessed, using self-reports, at the outset of the treatment (T1), six months later (T2) and 18 months after the beginning of treatment (T3). Analysis of the observed differences was carried out using Wilcoxon's Signed-Rank test and Cohen's d.ResultsThe results from commencement of treatment showed that the parents had considerable problems in all areas examined. At the outset of treatment (T1) the mothers showed a higher level of problem load than the fathers on almost all scales. In the families where the children's problems have also been measured (children from the age of four) it appeared that they had problems of a nature and degree otherwise found in psychiatric populations. We found a clear general trend towards a positive development from T1 to T2 and this development was also reinforced from T2 to T3. Aggression in the child was one of the most common causes for contact. There were few undesired or unplanned interruptions of the treatment, and the attrition from the study was low.ConclusionThis study has shown that it is possible to reach mothers as well as fathers with parenting problems and to create an intervention program with very low dropout levels – which is of special importance for families with small children displaying aggressive behaviour. The parents taking part in this study showed clear improvement trends after six months and this development was reinforced a year later. This study suggests the necessity of clinical development and future research concerning the role of fathers in parent-child interaction interventions.

Parental stress in early parenthood among mothers and fathers in Sweden

“…The finding that mothers with and without university education commonly perceived more stress than fathers in the sub-area role restriction may be attributable to the fact that the mothers felt that the time and opportunities for their own interests were restricted by their parental responsibilities. This is supported by several studies (8,24,40). Mothers are still often the primary caregivers (4), and although fathers share the responsibility for the child (51), they let the mothers take the main responsibility for the children and their homes.…”

“…Both the mother and father report lower stress when the father shares or does most of the child care in the home (9). Parent-child interventions reduce parental stress and seem to facilitate good parenting, with greater improvement for mothers than for fathers (4,24).…”

An interaction-focused intervention approach to training everyday communication partners: a single case study

“…Observation of one's own behaviours on video recordings is a powerful tool in the implementation of change and is often used in family therapy as well as in higher education (Fukkink, Trienekens, & Kramer, 2011;Neander & Engström, 2009). The use of video feedback can be a powerful means of making individuals aware of their own communicative practices that, in many cases, they may be employing without much conscious awareness.…”

Assisting the development of infants born prematurely using a self-regulation framework and relationship-based intervention process

“…They could attend to subtle motor cues from the infant that might otherwise go unnoticed or be misunderstood [27] . Instead the mother could consider these cues with someone and reflect on how she might do things differently with her body like the way she held her baby, in order to foster a closer connection and support her infant to be a competent interactive partner.…”

“…The intervenor not only identified each infant's own efforts at self-regulation through self-regulatory assessments, but also discovered each mother's concerns and perceptions of her baby's regulatory efforts. Each intervention session began with the parent's concern or question, which is the basis for working collaboratively [27] and the heart of a family centred approach. Mothers then watched and commented on parts of video replays of each assessment so the intervenor could see through their eyes and hear about how they were making sense of their infant's behaviour.…”