Children participation in family tasks and establishing a good communication through an experiential training program: “Building the everyday”
Author(s):
Carmen Carmen (presenting / submitting) Omar Garcia (presenting) Susana Torío Carmen María Fernández
Conference:
ECER 2014
Network:
14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Format:
Paper

Session Information

14 SES 06 B, Family Education, Parenting and School-Family-Community Partnerships (Part 3)

Paper Session: continued from 14 SES 03 B, 14 SES 04 B and to be continued in 14 SES 07 B

Time:
2014-09-03
15:30-17:00
Room:
B326 Sala de Aulas
Chair:
Raquel-Amaya Martínez-González

Contribution

The Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the EU (2006) 19 on policy to support positive parenting is the cornerstone of the work of the Council of Europe in the field of parent-child relationship. Its aim is that Member States recognize the importance of parental responsibility and the need for parents to have enough support to meet their responsibilities in the education of their children.

Positive parenting is defined in the Recommendation (2006)19 as: “parental behaviour based on the best interest of the child that is nurturing, empowering, non-violent and provides recognition and guidance which involves setting of boundaries to enable the full development of the child” (Council of Europe, 2006, p. 3). Similarly, in “Parenting in contemporary Europe: a positive approach” (Council of Europe, 2007), member states are encouraged to take all appropriate legislative, administrative and financial measures to create the best possible conditions for positive parenting.

Rodrigo, Máiquez & Martin (2010) provide some recommendations for the organization of preventive and promotional programs that support the positive parenting. The program, "Building the everyday" (experiential training program), meets these recommendations, such as "developing the reconciliation of family, work and personal life by promoting co-responsibility in caring tasks in the family and society and developing a more equitable use of time "(p. 29).

            The literature review confirms the lack of such programs in our country. Currently only is implemented a program that has been developed by a research group at the University of the Basque Country (Maganto & Bartau, 2004; Maganto, Bartau & Etxeberría, 2003a, 2003b). McBride, Brown, Bost, Shin, Vaughn & Korth (2005. See too McBride & Lutz, 2004) concluded that the programs should be directed to:

  • Change female beliefs about the role fathers and mothers play in the education of their children.
  • Change male beliefs and behaviors that inhibit their active participation in child care. 

            Following these educational principles ASOCED, research group has designed and implemented the program "Building the everyday" (Torío, Peña, Rodríguez, Fernández Molina, Hernandez & Inda, 2013). It is a parenting program aimed at parents of children enrolled in Nursery and Primary Education. Three are the principles that support this program:

  • Working for a democratic model of family education.
  • Equality, avoiding gender stereotypes in the family and in the children education.
  • The family responsibilities or shared parenting

      It is an experiential training program for parents. The purpose of the program is to recreate the familiar everyday knowledge in a sociocultural environment (Martín-Quintana, Byrne, Máiquez Rodriguez, Rodrigo & Rodríguez, 2009, 127). Therefore the main task of the fathers and mothers is to identify and analyze their own beliefs, feelings and actions in everyday situations. We emphasize that in our program is essential the voluntary participation of both partners (except for single parents) to bring changes in family dynamics.

      The contents of the program are focused on two main sections. In the first of these, types of educating family and the importance of norms in family life are addressed. The second section discusses the following dimensions: how we distribute the housework, communication based on active listening and respect and, finally, negotiated solution of the conflicts in the division of housework. The program emphasizes the development of norms, support and affection in relationships, and the participation of children in household chores, communication skills, conflict resolution, negotiation and agreement between the couple.

            In this paper we analyze the results obtained in implementing the program with a group of 35 fathers and mothers (nuclear families and single parents) in the dimensions of “children participation in family tasks” and “establishing a good communication on families”.

Method

Participants Stakeholders were 35 parents, whose 19 were women (54.3%) and 16 were men (45.7%). Mean age was of 41.5 years (S.D. = 5). In women, mean’s age was 41 years (S.D. =5) and in men 42 (S.D.=5.9). There was no difference on age by gender, U-Man-Whitney =151.5; p>.05. The average number of children by family is similar in the five schools, between one or two in (χ2=8.8; p>.05). Instruments • Inventory of guidelines and family educational resources It is a scale developed to allow assessment of the program before and after of the training period. The scale has 43 items and combines 25 closed-ended questions , 17 closed-dichotomous items and an open question. The instrument evaluated seven dimensions in the families: "Motherhood and fatherhood belief’s", “Parenting styles and practices", "Division of household labor” "Children participation in family tasks", "Negotiated solution of conflicts" and, "Establishing a good communication". The score on each of the factors are distributed along a continuum with two poles: from poor fit to better fit in the dimension evaluated. The number of participants is not very high so we introduced the alpha index of internal consistency. During the initial phase of the program has been .81 and .86 in post-test phase. • The Scale of Parental Competence Sensed (parents vision) (ECPP-p) This instrument assesses the perception parents about their parenting style (Bayot & Hernández, 2008). The ECPP-p is a 22-item instrument with five score in each dimension: school involvement, personal commitment, free-time shared, guidance and counselling and taking on parental role. The possible range of subscale scores varies from 4 to 16 and total score is from 22 to 88. The scale on the original version have a good internal consistency, .86, in our sample was .75. Procedure The possibility, to work the program, was free. Initial contact in most cases has been made through the Associations of Parents of the respective institutions. Once formed the groups of families and during the first session of the program, parents completed the Inventory and Bayot´s Scale. This initial evaluation has allowed us to meet some of their positions, strengths and weaknesses as a family. After six months from the end of the program, the research team made contact with families to make a follow-up evaluation. In this moment we reapplied the Inventory of guidelines and family educational resources.

Expected Outcomes

Content validity Spearman correlation, between Inventory items and Bayot´s Scale, are carried out. Four of the items have not correlated with any ECCP-p item. To explain of this result, there is taken into a consideration of the ECCP assess the basic activities and behaviours’ parent to get autonomous children. Our instrument gathers more paternity factors (Torío, Peña, Inda, Fernández & Rodríguez, 2013). Analysis of stability changes after sixth months on the end of the program We conducted the non-parametric test of Wilcoxon signed-rank for two related samples, and we presented de value of effect sizes with the probability of superiority (PS); because these data are primary and it is advisable to calculate the effect sizes of intervention educational over the stakeholders (Grisson & Kim, 2012, 172-173; Wilkinson and the Task Force on Statiscal Inference APA Board of Scientific Affairs, 1999). Previously, items with four alternative answers were dichotomized in two categories: 1 (non-educational) and 2 (educational). Means and S.D. are showed. Significative differences in the “Sometimes, I feel incapable of my partner or children understand my disagreement with anything “(Z=-2.14, p<.05, PSdep=.34) and in “When I see a situation that I upset me I am usually to answer right away and not reflective” (Z=-1.73, p=.08, PSdep=.26). Means in both of them are better in postest, this mean that participants had answered particularly “no”. It is interesting noted that program have to work more the role children in household chores because as we can see a decrease in “It is enough that the participation of my children is developed in the personal areas (to make the bed, pick up their toys, tidy their room)”. Summary, most families assert that there have had changes as “children participation in family tasks” and “establishing a good communication on families”.

References

Bayot, A. & Hernández, J.V. (2008). Evaluación de la competencia familiar. Madrid: Ciencias de la Educación Preescolar y Especial. Consejo de Europa (2006). Recomendación REC (2006)19 del Comité de Ministros sobre políticas de apoyo a la parentalidad positiva. Estrasburgo: Consejo de Europa. Consejo de Europa (2007). Parenting in contemporany Europe: a possitive approach. Estrasburgo: Consejo de Europa. Grisson, R. & Kim, J. (2012). Effect Sizes for Reserach. Univariate and Multiviariate Applications. New York: Routledge. Maganto, J. M., Bartau, I. & Etxeberría, J. (2003a). La participación de los hijos en el trabajo familiar. Revista de Investigación Educativa, 21 (1), 249-269. Maganto, J.M., Bartau, I. & Etxeberría, J. (2003b). La participación en el trabajo familiar: un reto educativo y social. Revista electrónica de Investigación y Evaluación Educativa, 9(2). Maganto, J.M. & Bartau, I. (2004). Programa COFAMI. Corresponsabilidad familiar. Fomentar la cooperación y responsabilidad de los hijos. Madrid: Pirámide. McBride, B. & Lutz, M. (2004). Intervention: changing the nature and extent of father involvement. En M. Lamb (Ed.), The role of the father in child development (pp. 446-475). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. McBride, B. A., Brown, G. L., Bost, K. K., Shin, N., Vaughn, B. & Korth, B. (2005). Paternal identity, maternal gatekeeping, and father involvement. Family Relations, 54, 360-372. Martín-Quintana, J.C., Byme, S., Máiquez, Mª L., Rodríguez, B., Rodrigo, Mª J. y Rodríguez, G. (2009). Programas de educación parental. Intervención psicosocial, 18 (2), 121-133. Rodrígo, Mª J., Máiquez, Mª L. & Martín Quintana, J.C. (2010). Parentalidad positiva y políticas locales de apoyo a las familias. Orientaciones para favorecer el ejercicio de las responsabilidades parentales desde las corporaciones locales. Madrid: Federación Española de Municipios y Provincias (FEMP). Torío, S., Peña, J.V., Rodríguez, M.C., Fernández, C.M., Molina, S., Hernández, J. e Inda, M. (2013). Construir lo Cotidiano: un programa de educación parental. Barcelona: Octaedro. Torío, S., Peña, J.V., Fernández, C. Mª, Inda, M. y Rodríguez, Mª.C. (2013). Pervivencias, fortalecimientos y cambios de las prácticas educativas familiares. Paper presented at the Strengthening Family Strategy Online Conference. University of Balearic Islands (Spain), 7th-20th December 2013. Wilkinson and the Task Force on Statiscal Inference APA Board of Scientific Affairs. (1999). Statiscal Methods in Psychology Journals. Guidelines and Explanations. American Psychologist, 54(8), 594-604.

Author Information

Carmen Carmen (presenting / submitting)
University of Oviedo
Science Education
Oviedo
Omar Garcia (presenting)
Universidad de Oviedo
Ciencias de la Educación
Oviedo
Susana Torío
University of Oviedo
Oviedo
Carmen María Fernández
University of Oviedo
Oviedo

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