“Building The Everyday” Experiential Training Program With Parents: Results After Three Years Implementing It

Author(s):

Carmen Rodriguez(presenting / submitting)Omar García-Pérez Sara Rodríguez

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research

Format:

Poster

Session Information

14 SES 07 A PS, Interactive Poster Session

Interactive Poster Session

Time:

2015-09-09

17:15-18:45

Room:

103.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Joana Lúcio

Contribution

The changes that are affecting the family nucleus (rhythms of life, adults’ labour demands, diverse typologies of families, incorrect educational attitudes,...) cause the defencelessness of parents towards the most accurate ways to respond to everyday situations.

Even though the opinions of different professionals may be important (paediatricians, teachers, mediators...), in many situations it seems necessary to share experiences with other fathers and mothers in order to look for different opinions.

When "experiential models" are used with parents, these spaces for the expression and exchange are facilitated, allowing fathers and mothers to obtain potential resources and skills which may be useful (Maganto y Bartau, 2004; Rodrigo, et.al, 2000, 2008, 2010; Martínez, 2009; Orte, Ballester & Mach, 2013; Torío, Peña, Rodríguez, Fernández, Molina, Hernández & Inda, 2013).

In the experiential models and in contrast to the academic ones (acquisition of concepts about development and education in a formal learning environment - parents as students-) or the technical models (acquisition of techniques and procedures based on the modification of behaviour, social learning, etc. in a scenario of expert learning - parents as experts--), fathers and mothers feel active in the educational task (Cataldo, 1991; Maíquez, Rodrigo, Capote & Vermaes, 2000). This process cannot be achieved through lectures, but through procedures that generate reflection and personal analysis.

From this perspective, we present the parental education program "Building the everyday" (Torío, et.al, 2013). Its main purpose is to support and assist families in the upbringing and education of their children so that they can encourage equality, respect and shared responsibility habits. The program intends to promote an educational model that helps children to grow in understanding and to foster values of equality and democracy. The program consists of two modules with 10 compulsory sessions. It also allows the possibility of some complementary and optional sessions. As we have already mentioned, the program focuses on helping families to develop skills related to a fair distribution and corresponsibility in domestic work (traditional household duties, sons’ and daughters’ care and emotional work), with communication processes and finally, the resolution of conflicts. To sum up, the goal is the acquisition of knowledge in the field of corresponsibility which may be suitable for everyday life and which needs to be flexible depending on people and their situations.

We assume that the intervention during childhood is crucial since parents’ interactions developed around socialization can build an interactive style to cultivate accurate relations with their children before the adolescence (Comellas, 2006). In synthesis, the implementation of the program favours a positive parenting (Sanders, Markie-Dadds & Turner, 2003; Rodríguez, Maíquez & Martín, 2010a; Vargas Rubilar & Arán Filippetti, 2014), and promotes positive relationships in order to optimize boys’ and girls’ potential development and their well-being.

The results which have been obtained after the application of the program with a group of 48 fathers and mothers are analysed in this paper. Among all the parental competencies or capacities included in the program we would like to emphasize: “motherhood and fatherhood beliefs", “parenting styles and practices", "division of household labour”, "children participation in family tasks", "negotiated solution of conflicts" and "establishing a good communication".

Method

Participants: Stakeholders were 48 parents; 26 of them were women (54.2%) and 22 men (45.8%). The mean age was 41.58 years (S.D. =4.98). In women, the mean age was 41.12 years (S.D. =4.80) and 42.14 in men (S.D. =5.25). There was no difference on age by gender, T-test (22,26;46)=0.70; p>.05. The average number of children by family was one child. The distribution of frequencies was: 27 (56.4%) one child, 17 (35.4%) two and 4 families (8.3%) had 3 children. Measures: - Inventory of guidelines and family educational resources It is a scale developed to allow the evaluation of the program before and after the training period. The scale has 43 items and combines 25 closed-ended questions, 17 closed-dichotomous items and one open question. The instrument evaluated seven dimensions in the families: "Motherhood and fatherhood beliefs", “Parenting styles and practices", "Division of household labour” "Children participation in family tasks", "Negotiated solution of conflicts" and, "Establishing a good communication". The score on each of the factors is distributed along a continuum with two poles: poor fit and good fit in each of the evaluated dimensions. We have introduced the alpha index of internal consistency, α=.80. - The Scale of Parental Competence Sensed (parents vision) (ECPP-p) This instrument assesses the parents’ perception about their parenting style (Bayot & Hernández, 2008). The ECPP-p is a 22-item instrument with five scores in each of the dimensions: school involvement, personal commitment, shared free-time, guidance and counselling and taking on their parental role. The possible range of subscale scores varies from 4 to 16. The total score fluctuates from 22 to 88. On the original version the scale showed a good internal consistency, .86, in our sample, α= .78. Procedure: The program has been applied since three years ago (2012, 2013 and 2014). First of all, the research team contacted each school included in the project. Candidate families were then offered the possibility of free access to the program. The timetable of the sessions was adapted to their needs. In most cases, the initial contact was made through the Parents’ Association of the respective institutions. Once the groups of the interested families from each school were formed, the sessions began. In the first session of the program, parents completed two instruments. Six months after the end of the program, the research team contacted the families to carry out a follow-up evaluation, and reapplied the evaluation instruments.

Expected Outcomes

In general, it has been observed that the program has improved families situation after six months of their participation in it. They have started cognitive, affective and behavioural changes in their family dynamics. They have also reaffirmed changes in their educational task. They have felt listened and understood, they have created friendship with other participants and their feeling of guilt has decreased as they have observed that others have the same concerns and, even, problems. Given that the sample was small and the dependent variables were non- normally distributed, we used the Wilcoxon signed-rank non-parametric test for two related samples. As it is convenient in studies where data are primary, we presented the effect size values in the form of the probability of superiority (PS). Fathers in the group reported progress in two factors of the program: parenting styles and practices (PSdep=.65), children’s participation in family tasks (PSdep=.65); negotiated solution of conflicts (PSdep=.75) and establishing good communication (PSdep= .60) and in the ECPP-P (PSdep= .67). Mothers reported improvements in parenting styles and practices" (PSdep=.54), division of household labour (PSdep= .54), negotiated solution of conflicts (PSdep=.58) and establishing good communication (PSdep= .67) and in the ECPP-P (PSdep= .78) In short, these processes of change offer families learning opportunities that end up enabling the reconstruction/optimization of their exercise of parenting (Rodrigo, Maiquez & Martin, 2010b) and which allow the emphasis of aspects that influence the all family members integral education.

References

Cataldo, C. (1991). Aprendiendo a ser padres: conceptos y contenidos para el diseño de programas de formación de padres. Madrid: Visor. Comellas, J. (2006). Nuevas alternativas y modelos en la relación familia-escuela y profesionales de la comunidad. Cultura y educación, 18 (3-4), 295-309. Maganto, M.& Bartau, I. (2004). Corresponsabilidad familiar: Fomentar la cooperación responsabilidad de los hijos. Madrid: Pirámide. Maíquez, Mª L, Rodrigo, Mª J., Capote, C. & Vermaes, I. (2000). Aprender en la vida cotidiana. Un programa experiencial para padres. Madrid: Visor. Martínez González, R.A. (2009). Programa-Guía para el desarrollo de competencias emocionales, educativas y parentales. Madrid: Ministerio de Sanidad. Orte, C., Ballester, L & Mach, M.X. (2013). El enfoque de la competencia familiar. Una experiencia de trabajo socioeducativo con familias. Pedagogía Social, 21, 13-37. Rodrigo, Mª J., Capote, C., Máiquez, L., Martín, C., Rodríguez, G., Guimera P. & Peña, M. (2000). Manual del Programa Apoyo Personal y Familiar. Tenerife: Fundación ECCA. Rodrigo, Mª J., Máiquez, M.L., Byme, S., Rodríguez, B., Martín, J.C., Rodríguez, G. & Pérez, L. (2008). Programa Crecer Felices en familia. Programa de apoyo psicoeducativo para promover el desarrollo infantil. Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León. Rodrigo, Mª J., Martín, J.C., Máiquez, L.; Álvarez, M., Byme, S., González, A., Guerra, M., Montesdecoa, M.A. & Rodríguez, B. (2010). Programa Vivir la adolescencia en familia. Programa de apoyo psicoeducativo para promover la convivencia familiar. Toledo: Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha. Rodrigo, Mª J., Maíquez, Mª L., & Martín, J.C. (2010a). 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) Rodrigo, Mª J., Maíquez, Mª. & Martín, C. (2010b). La educación parental como recursos psicoeducativo para promover la parentalidad positiva. Madrid, Federación Española de Municipios y Provincias (FEMP) Sanders, M.R., Markie-Dadds, C. & Turner, M.T. (2003). Theoretical, scientific and Clinical Foundations of the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program: A population approach to the promotion of parenting competence. Parenting Research and Practice Monograph, 1. University of Queensland. Australia: Parenting and Family Support Centre. Torío, S., Peña, .V., Rodríguez, C., Fernández, C.., Molina, S., Hernández, J. & Inda, M. (2013). Construir lo cotidiano: un programa de educación parental. Barcelona, Octaedro. Vargas, J. & Arán, V. (2014). Importancia de la parentalidad para el desarrollo cognitivo infantil: una revisión teórica. Revista Latinoamericana Ciencias Sociales, Niñez y Juventud, 12 (1), 171-186.

Author Information

Carmen Rodriguez (presenting / submitting)

University of Oviedo

Science Education

Oviedo

Omar García-Pérez

University of Oviedo

Oviedo

Sara Rodríguez

University of Oviedo, Spain

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