Family Perspectives in Child and Youth Services

David Olson, Jerome Beker

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781135852252
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Medicina
• Categoria: Teoría, práctica y referencia médicas

This timely book demonstrates the value and relevance of family-oriented programs in dealing with problems experienced by children and adolescents. Experts provide salient guidelines and recommendations for involving the family in the diagnosis and treatment of problems. In addition to providing current reviews of research, this practical volume describes various skill-building programs and therapeutic interventions that can be used in a variety of program and treatment settings. Designed for helping professionals who work with children and youth, Family Perspectives in Child and Youth Services will be most valuable for practitioners in social work, psychology, psychiatry, and child development.

PARENT TRAINING AND PREVENTION APPROACHES

Parent Training for Delinquency Prevention

Mark W. Fraser

J. David Hawkins

Matthew O. Howard

DOI: 10.4324/9781315059297-6

ABSTRACT. The use of consistent contingent child rearing practices by parents has been shown to increase family attachment and cohesion, and decrease delinquent behaviors among children. Research indicates that these practices can be successfully taught through parent training. This paper describes the components of parent training, reviews implementation issues, and discusses research findings and implications. Practical problems associated with this approach that may limit its widespread use as a major delinquency prevention strategy are discussed. Areas for further research are identified.

Mark W. Fraser is affiliated with the University of Utah School of Social Work, Salt Lake City, UT 84112; J. David Hawkins and Matthew O. Howard are affiliated with the University of Washington School of Social Work, JH-30, 4101 Fifteenth Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195. Prepared under grants from the National Institute for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent official positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice or the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Scholars have speculated on the relationship between the family and delinquent behavior for years. There is evidence to support the existence of a biological predisposition toward crime transmitted through families. There is also evidence that experiences in the family during the process of development contribute to delinquent behavior (Wilson & Herrnstein, 1985).

Researchers have found that family attachment variables have independent effects on delinquent behavior (Hirschi, 1969). It appears that the process of socialization in the family is involved in the etiology of delinquency and is a promising target for delinquency prevention activities.

Unfortunately, a number of delinquency prevention efforts targeted on youths and their families have failed to demonstrate effectiveness when subjected to rigorous evaluation (Berleman, 1980). The social casework and counseling model of individual and family interventions tested in the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study failed to prevent officially recorded delinquent offenses (Powers & Witmer, 1951). The child guidance model tested by the New York City Youth Board was based on the Glueck’s Social Prediction Table (Craig & Furst, 1965), reflecting the view that disorganized family life was the source of delinquent behavior. It also failed to prevent officially recorded delinquency (Berleman, 1980). Similarly, Washington D.C.’s Maximum Benefits Project, a social casework-oriented model based on the Glueck’s Prediction Table, failed to prevent delinquency (Berleman, 1980). Apparently, these family counseling and casework approaches to delinquency prevention did not adequately address the family variables important in the etiology of delinquency.

In contrast, encouraging results have been obtained in several small family-focused research projects which attempted to alter family practices related to delinquent behavior (Alexander & Parsons, 1973; Klein et al., 1977; Patterson, 1974 b, 1982). In these projects, parents were engaged actively in structured educational programs which trained them in specific skills. This paper reviews this educational approach to family-focused delinquency prevention. The approach is cognitive behavioral parent training.

The paper presents a framework for assessing parent training, reviews the history and theoretical bases for the approach, describes its components, and reviews implementation and practice issues associated with parent training. Finally, research results and studies needed are discussed from a delinquency prevention perspective.

A Framework for Parent Training

Given the gloomy results of many past efforts, on what foundation can family-oriented prevention programs be based? Hawkins and Weis (1985) have proposed a model of delinquency as a basis for empirically supportable intervention. Their social development approach is a synthesis of social control theory and social learning theory. The model identifies the family, school, and peer group as major social units in which youths develop and hypothesizes that a child’s attachment to conventional actors within these social units is associated with an absence of delinquent behavior. It suggests that the greater the degree of attachment to prosocial others, the lower the probability of delinquency. The model hypothesizes that the formation of attachment in a social unit is contingent upon three factors: (1) the extent to which opportunities for participation in the social unit are available to the individual; (2) the skills which the individual uses in participating in the social unit whether in completing tasks, solving problems, or interacting with others; and (3) the reinforcements (both positive and negative) that are provided through the social unit for behaviors that conform to the unit’s expectations.

From a developmental perspective, establishing a social bond to the family is extremely important. Social bonding to the family provides a base of support from which the child can develop bonds to other social units encountered later in the process of social development.

The social development perspective provides a provisional set of criteria for assessing the promise of family-oriented delinquency prevention approaches. Interventions in the family should increase opportunities for the child’s involvement in prosocial interactions and activities, increase the child’s skills for participation in the family and beyond, and insure the frequency and consistency of rewards for prosocial participation by the child. Where this is achieved, a social bond can be expected to develop between the child and his or her family. This bond of attachment should inhibit delinquent behavior. Thus, parent training may reduce juvenile crime by increasing parents’ skills to create opportunities for involvement and interaction in the family for their children, to set clear expectations for their children, and to practice consistent and contingent family management.

History of Parent Training

Parent training was advanced significantly in the 1960s when behavioral therapists sought to extend clinical practices into the home. Wahler (1969 a), Patterson et al. (1967 b), Hawkins et al. (1966), and others argued that clinically significant changes were of practical importance only if parents were able to influence their child’s behavior in the home, independent of direct clinical control. In a series of small studies, they developed interventions to achieve this goal and observational measures to test changes in clinic and home settings (Tighe & Elliott, 1968). Concomitantly, social workers attempting to teach child management skills to groups of low-income parents were achieving moderate success (Wittes & Radin, 1971). The advances in the last 15 years have made parent training an interventive tool with potential for delinquency prevention.

Research has demonstrated that parents can be trained to modify the behavior of their children (Loeber & Stouthamer-Loeber, 1985). Using single subject, multiple baseline or reversal designs, and no treatment control, placebo control, and alternate treatment control group designs, numerous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of parent training (Briar & Conte, 1978). Parent training has been shown to increase school achievement and decrease stealing, fighting, and disruptive behaviors (Patterson, 1974 a, 1974 b). While there have been...