Parenting Techniques
Behavior Parent Training on Fathers Parenting The Behavioral parent training programs have been developed to address child behavior problems through improvement in parenting practices. The triple P or Positive Training Program is widely reported as an effective, evidence based program for parents. However this journal demonstrates that there are significant differences in the program’s effectiveness for mothers and fathers. The analysis on this journal demonstrates that The Positive Parenting Program shows a large effectiveness on mothers while having a smaller effect on fathers parenting practices.
Considering that fathers make a significant contribution to child development. It is now well accepted that “poor” parenting practices will have significant impacts on children’s emotional and behavioral wellbeing. Parents’ harsh inconsistent discipline, inadequate supervision, and a lack of positive relationship have been shown to increase children’s behavior problems and later on in life lead to substance abuse, antisocial behavior and criminal activities.
In order to strengthen parenting competencies and improve parent-child interactions a wide range of Behavioral Parent Training programs have been developed. According to the journal’s analysis the Positive Parenting Program is very effective when involving the mother and the father, and the children are the beneficiaries of better parenting skills. The study does not show which population the program is working on therefore we have to take into consideration how can we make the proper adjustments in order to make it work for other populations.
It is a known fact that mothers are more involved with the program and the children than the fathers are, but fathers are getting involved more every time. Prior parental training programs did not focus on fathers or valued any input on it and there was very little literature for the fathers. The fathers’ involvement plays a very important role on the children’s life and upbringing and the fathers’ impact on the child’s life is separate from that of the mothers’.
On the one hand, fathers positive parenting (sensitive to children’s’ interests, supportive of their autonomy) has been identified as protective against externalizing problems in young children; on the other hand negative training by fathers (harsh discipline, unstable presence) has been found to increase the behavior problems on both boys and girls. Fathers participation on the program improves the child’s behavior and helps to support each other as parents. So the fathers’ involvement on the program is crucial not only for the child but the mother also.
Providers need to support the involvement of fathers in the parenting trainings. The Positive Parenting Program focuses on the participation of both the mother and father, and fathers actually benefit from the program. The Positive Parenting Program has five levels; the first level focuses on community media, and information on how to deal with basic child problems. Level two offers individual support, providers offer advice and tips on how to deal with child issues, level three does four thirty minutes behavior counseling sessions in order to manage the progress or lack thereof.
Level four was developed for children with disabilities, these sessions deal with the child’s misbehavior and offer strategies for encouraging their development, and level five covers a home-based skills training sessions that offer coping with stress and emotions, marital communication support. It is designed for parents at risk of child maltreatment; it also focuses on anger management. The Positive Parent Program has been used by culturally diverse parents, multi languages, face to face, telephone, and electronic modalities with remarkable results.