Supporting Parents Who Have Youth with Emotional Disturbances Through a Parent-to-Parent Support Program: A Proof of Concept Study Using Random Assignment

Abstract

Poor outcomes for youth who have emotional disturbances (ED), especially for those youth who are placed in special education programs, are well documented. Parent Connectors is a parent-to-parent support program delivered through weekly telephone calls to families of youth with ED in special education programs, with the aim of increasing the engagement of parents in their child's education and treatment and improving the academic and emotional functioning of the child. Findings from a proof of concept study using random assignment of participants yielded encouraging support for the clinical efficacy of the intervention. Results demonstrated enhanced outcomes for parents who were highly strained at the beginning of the study. Implications for future research in the area of parent support are provided.

Caregiver Perspectives During the Post Inpatient Hospital Transition: A Mixed Methods Approach

“…Participating families are assigned to a Transition Team, consisting of a Family Connector (FC) and School Transition Specialist (STS). The FCs implement an adapted version of the evidence-based Parent Connectors program (Kutash et al 2011), are legacy family members of a child with EBD, and are trained to provide peer-to-peer support. They provide the child's caregiver with emotional and informational support through structured, weekly phone calls and encourage caregivers to become actively engaged in their child's school and mental health services.…”

“…In another study, parents who viewed themselves as more empowered had children with higher psychosocial functioning scores than parents who did not feel as empowered (Resendez et al 2000). Empowerment appears to be a malleable construct that can be improved by the provision of additional family support (Kutash et al 2011;Resendez et al 2000).…”

“…Given these findings, various interventions have been created to address these goals [e.g., the Parent Connectors program (Kutash et al 2011), the Parent Empowerment program (Olin et al 2010)]. However, research on how to improve coping and increase empowerment and social support remains in its early stages and the mechanisms for change are not yet known.…”

Tertiary first step to success : a process evaluation of the home component.

“…Following is a brief discussion on various schoolbased interventions, and a more expanded discussion on parenting models that address the ecological conditions of children's socio-behavioral development. (Kutash, Duchnowski, Green, & Ferron, 2011).…”

“…More specifically, a review of the social-behavioral literature suggests a strong link between well-adjusted youth and strong self-efficacy parenting (Bagner & Eyberg, 2003;Brotman et al 2011;Dishion et al 2008;Gardner et al, 2009;Hoagwood et al 2007;Kutash, Duchnowski, Green, & Ferron, 2011;Stormshak & Dishion, 2009). For this reason, effective and efficient parent trainings have become an important component for countering learned negative socio-behavior patterns that emerge from children's untreated adverse conditions (Brotman et al 2011;Finn, 1998;Nock & Ferriter, 2005).…”