A parent's place: Parents', mentors' and program staff members' expectations for and experiences of parental involvement in community-based youth mentoring relationships

Youth mentoring has been conceptualized largely as a dyadic relationship between a mentor and mentee, with less attention paid to the role of parents. This study contributes to an emerging body of research on parent involvement by examining expectations for parents' roles in the mentoring process held by program staff, mentors, and parents themselves. In-depth interviews with mentoring program staff (n = 12), mentors (n = 30), and a parent or guardian of the youth being mentored (n = 30) were analyzed to identify these participants' views on the role of parents. Findings indicate that mentors and program staff were more aligned in their views and tended to be more focused on the ways that parents could potentially interfere with or otherwise disrupt the mentor–youth relationship. Parents' views were more varied and rooted in differences in both their individual values and beliefs about the role of a mentor in their child's life, their parenting styles and ways they expected adults outside of the family who were interacting with their child to engage with them. Implications for future research on parent involvement and for mentoring program practices are discussed.     

Reducing hostile parenting through computer-mediated parenting education

ObjectiveThe present study evaluated a computer-mediated parent education program aimed at improving parents' self-concept and dysfunctional parenting practices.DesignEmployer-based parent education services were offered as part of a corporation's employee wellness program. Participants (N = 247) were asked to complete pre- and post-test surveys including surveys of demographic information, parental self-concept, and dysfunctional parenting behaviors.ResultsParticipants reported clinically significant levels of dysfunctional parenting practices at baseline. Results from the single-dose intervention indicated a significant decrease in hostile parenting from pre-test to post-test, which was likely predicted by parents' sense of competence at baseline.ConclusionComputer-mediated parent education workshops were efficacious in improving parents' self-concept and reducing parents' use of hostile parenting tactics. The study provides an important contribution to the extant literature by documenting the effectiveness of computer-mediated parenting programs, particularly those offered through the workplace.     

Police and social work preventions of offending among at-risk youth in Shanghai

The effectiveness of police disciplining and social work counseling in preventing offending of at-risk youth has been unclear. For elucidating the prevention regarding theft and fighting, this study analyzes 1702 retrospective event history cases from 297 at-risk youths identified in the Chinese metropolis of Shanghai. Herein, the event history refers to theft, fighting, police disciplining, and social work counseling happening in the youth's age of 11 years through 18 years. The analysis reveals that the interventions of police disciplining and social work counseling, both in the previous year, demonstrated significant negative effects on fighting and theft respectively. Furthermore, combination of the two interventions generated a significant negative interaction effect on theft. These findings exemplify elasticity theory by showing that the hard form of police disciplining and the soft form of social work counseling are complementary in preventing offending. The findings imply the worth of promoting the interventions selectively to prevent hard and soft offending such as fighting and stealing respectively.     

What Do You Mean My Child Is in Custody? A Qualitative Study of Parental Response to the Detention of Their Child

This qualitative study involved in-depth interviews with 11 parents whose children had been taken into custody. The initial reactions and responses of the parents to the detention of their children were examined, as well as these parents' thoughts and feelings about theprocess and their involvement in the juvenile justice system. The following major themes emerged from the data analysis: (a) feeling frustrated and confused, (b) a perception of the system as being fair, (c) the juvenile system assuming a parental role, and (d) the influence of detention on family dynamics. Findings highlight the personal experiences of the parents as they attempted to navigate the juvenile justice system.     

Social bonds and male juvenile delinquency while on probation: An exploratory test in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong probation system is considered as the least researched component within the criminal justice system. Therefore, limited information is known about the Hong Kong probation system and offenders who are serving their probation order, especially in the juvenile population. This study is among the first to examine the differential effects of social bonds (Hirschi, 1969), measured during their probation period, on theft and violent delinquency in a saturated sample of 94 juvenile male probationers (aged 14 to 20 years) in Hong Kong. As expected, findings indicate that poor parental bonding and negative belief in the legal system are likely to increase the propensity to commit theft and violent delinquency, respectively, including the probation period. However, though not uncommon, the increase level of involvement in organizational activities is likely to result in the increase of propensity to commit violent crime, even during the probation period. This study further offers the implications for social services that target the juvenile offenders in terms of fostering a healthy parent-child bonding and a clear understanding of the criminal justice system via the enhancement of the police-youth relationship. Limitations and future research directions are also outlined.     

Maternal understanding of child discipline and maltreatment in the United States,South Korea,and Japan

The purpose of this study is to examine American, Korean, and Japanese mothers' perceptions of maltreatment, and the factors influencing those perceptions in the context of general parenting and discipline. Through a cross-cultural comparative approach, we hope to identify potential universalities as well as cultural specific perceptions of parenting behaviors. For this purpose, a total of 153 mothers with a child aged 3 to 6 years participated in the current study. Participants came from East Coast of the United States (N = 48); Seoul, Korea (N = 65); Japan (Tokyo and Saitama) (N = 40). A modified version of a previously established questionnaire (Ahn, Park, & Lee, 1998) assessed mothers' attitudes toward multiple disciplinary behaviors. This questionnaire presented 17 specific vignettes describing disciplinary scenarios that could occur while disciplining children in everyday life, some of which could be perceived as physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Results of the study suggest significant differences between groups in terms of maternal perceptions of maltreatment and the factors influencing maternal perceptions. American mothers reported the highest mean score among the three countries in perceiving discipline centered on corporal punishment as physical abuse. Korean mothers displayed a dual attitude of perceiving the scenario as maltreatment, but also rating it as likely to occur in everyday life. Japanese mothers showed the most permissive attitude toward harsh parental behaviors among the three countries on the grounds that they considered a strict and punitive attitude as a method of discipline. Overall, mothers of all three countries had the lowest scores for perceiving the vignette corresponding to neglect as maltreatment.     

Socializing Children About Family Structure: Perspectives of Lesbian and Gay Adoptive Parents

Despite increasing numbers of lesbian- and gay- (LG-) parent families, little research on LG-adoptive-parent families has examined parental beliefs and perceptions related to discussing their sexual minority status with their children. This study assessed 266 LG adoptive parents (160 lesbian mothers, 106 gay fathers) from the Modern Adoptive Families (MAF) study, a nationwide survey (2012–2013) of adoptive parents' pre- and post-placement experiences. A cultural socialization lens provided the framework for examining LG parenting beliefs and practices. Two measurement scales were developed to examine parents' perceptions and self-efficacy related to socializing their child about being in a sexual-minority-parent family. Results indicate that LG parents endorse the importance of unique socialization practices and generally feel confident engaging in these practices. Parent education, transracial adoption, endorsement of racial socialization, and socialization self-efficacy were positively associated with endorsement of socialization practices. Excellent reliability suggests the 2 scales have the potential of being psychometrically sound instruments with which to measure parental endorsement and related self-efficacy of socialization practices for families headed by sexual minority parents. Findings contribute to a deeper understanding of socialization and communication patterns in LG-headed families, especially those formed through adoption. Research, policy, and practice implications are discussed.     

The plans,goals, and concerns of pre-emancipated youth in foster care

This study focuses on the plans, goals, and concerns of foster care youth prior to leaving care. Participants were 179 pre-emancipated youth between the ages of 17 and 20 years old (M = 17.82, SD = 0.79) from a large metropolitan area in Southern California. Self-articulated immediate plans were grouped into 4 major categories and self-articulated life goals were grouped into 10 categories while also examining the prioritization of, estimated time frame for, and youth's sense of control over their life goals. Survey and interview data reveal the importance of educational and occupational life goals and their prioritization. Youth reported a high level of certainty in their immediate plans, but the youth were less explicit in describing their immediate plans for the year after foster care. Foster youth may have difficulty identifying concrete steps to make plans a reality despite their ideas for the future. Youths' worries and concerns about their post-emancipation plans and life goals typically centered around academics and finances. This study contributes to the limited literature on the life goals and plans for foster youth; these results reinforce the need for greater support in planning and goal setting prior to emancipation.     

Coming Closer in Adolescence: Convergence in Mother,Father, and Adolescent Reports of Parenting

Parent–child relationships change during adolescence. Furthermore, parents and adolescents perceive parenting differently. We examined the changes in perceptions of parental practices in fathers, mothers, and adolescents during adolescence. Furthermore, we investigated if fathers', mothers', and adolescents' perceptions converge during adolescence. Following 497 families across six waves (ages 13–18), we investigated the development of parental support and behavioral control using mother and father self‐reports, and adolescent reports for mothers and fathers. We found curvilinear decrease for support and control. Parent–adolescent convergence emerged over the 6 years: those with higher intercepts had a steeper decrease, whereas correlations among parent and adolescent reports increased. This multi‐informant study sheds light on the development of parent–adolescent convergence on perceptions of parenting.     

Educational risk,recidivism, and service access among youth involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems

Dually-involved youth represent a population of youth who receive some level of supervision from both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems concurrently. The current study examined education-related risk factors, recidivism, referrals for services, and service access among dually-involved youth in Los Angeles County. Specifically, whether increased educational risk was associated with referrals to, and access of, educational services and supports and whether higher receipt of educational services reduced recidivism approximately six months post-disposition. Data for this study consisted of a sample of dually-involved youth (N = 131) who were adjudicated delinquent and also had a child welfare case open. An Educational Risk Index (ERI) was developed and included school attendance, credit deficiency, problem school behavior, and current grades. Results indicate that educational risk was negatively associated with mental health services accessed, demonstrating that those with higher educational risk accessed less mental health services. Educational risk, however, was not associated with increased educational service referrals or access, suggesting a possible mismatch in educational need and service referrals. Lastly, there were no significant differences between those that recidivated and those that did not recidivate in service access and educational risk.     

Parenting and emotional well-being of adoptive school-aged children: The mediating role of attachment

This study focuses on the processes of adoptive parenting that affect children's emotional well-being. It aims to analyze the role of children's attachment as a mediator of the relationship between both parenting styles and parenting stress and children's positive and negative affect in adoptive families of school-aged children. The study included 322 Portuguese participants, divided into one group of adoptive parents (n = 135) and one comparison group of non-adoptive parents (n = 187); target-children were aged between 6 and 12 years. Self-report questionnaires were used to analyze the dimensions under study (parenting styles, parenting stress, children's attachment and children's emotional well-being). After conducting a preliminary analysis to identify potential differences between the adoptive and the non-adoptive parents, a mediation model was tested using the path analysis procedure. A baseline model was established, followed by a multi-group analysis in order to explore the model's invariance across the groups. Children's attachment mediated the relationship between parenting (styles and stress) and children's positive and negative affect. The multi-group analysis revealed that, for the adoptive group, both secure and anxious/ambivalent attachment mediated the association between parenting stress and negative affect; for the non-adoptive group, secure attachment was found to mediate the link between emotional warmth and positive affect. For both groups, the relationship between parenting stress and positive affect was mediated by secure attachment. Results pointed to the relevance of children's attachment in the association of parenting styles and parenting stress with children's emotional well-being. Moreover, differences concerning the mediation model emerged across the two groups, revealing that children's negative outcomes were better explained in the adoptive group. The results reinforce the importance of supporting adoptive parents after the adoption process.     

Parent perspectives on adoption preparation: Findings from the Modern Adoptive Families project

Preparing prospective adoptive parents for receiving a child into their family is an important task for child and family professionals. This study uses data from the recent Modern Adoptive Families survey to understand parent perspectives on their preparation for adoption. Logistic regression (n = 917) and qualitative thematic analysis of adoptive parents' comments about their adoption preparation were conducted to understand aspects of the preparatory experience that were satisfactory (n = 623) or dissatisfactory (n = 283). Child emotional and behavioral problems significantly predicted parent dissatisfaction with adoption preparation. Major themes for satisfactory aspects of preadoption services included receiving information about adoption in general and, more specifically, about clinical and special populations, and parenting tools and strategies. In addition, parents identified opportunities to connect with others touched by adoption and access to specialized post-adoption services as helpful. Conversely, parents expressed dissatisfaction when information was lacking or withheld, when they had quality concerns with the worker or agency, and when there was a dearth of services and supports following adoption. Implications of these findings include the need for adoption mental health competent training for adoption professionals to better support families preparing for or experiencing adoption.     

Child Development Accounts,parental savings,and parental educational expectations: A path model

Parents' expectations for their children's education, and efforts to foster suitably positive expectations, are worthy of policy attention. Previous research indicates that early saving for a child's postsecondary education can foster and sustain high parental expectations, yet little is known about the operative mechanisms. This study presents analyses from a randomized experiment with Child Development Accounts (CDAs), a policy to encourage early financial investments for education and to shape parents' expectations concerning their young children's educational goals. Our research provides key evidence on whether parental account holding for children's college (a) has a positive impact on parents' expectations for their children's educational attainment and (b) mediates the CDA's effect on their educational expectations at an early stage in their child's development. We employ data from the SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK) experiment, the first randomized social experiment to test universal and progressive CDAs. We conduct a path analysis and a supplemental analysis with marginal structural models (n = 2160). We find that holding a college-savings account has a significant effect on parents' educational expectations for their children and that whether one holds an account mediates the effect of CDAs on such expectations. Findings suggest that CDAs may promote early parental financial investment and high expectations. Research and policy implications are discussed.     

From foster care to juvenile justice: Exploring characteristics of youth in three cities

Children placed in foster care are at risk for becoming involved with the juvenile justice system. This study documents the rates at which children involved with foster care enter the juvenile justice system (crossover or dually involved), and the factors associated with this risk. We utilize multiple birth cohorts and prospective, longitudinal data from birth to maturity separately in three major American cities. Analyses consider integrated administrative records from multiple birth cohorts representing populations in Cook County (Chicago; N = 26,003), Cuyahoga County (Cleveland; N = 10,284), and New York City (N = 13,065). Crossover rates ranged from 7 to 24%. African American males, and children who experienced congregate care were at highest risk for juvenile justice involvement. Older age at first foster care placement signaled progressively greater risk, as did more foster care spells for those first placed as infants. We discuss findings in terms of developmental theory, and as actionable intelligence to inform prevention, practice, and policy.     

PARENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR ADOLESCENT CHILDREN,PARENTAL RESOURCES,AND PARENTS' SATISFACTION WITH THE PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIP

Building on Belsky's process model of the determinants of parenting and using a nationally representative dataset of U.S. adolescents, this article examines the relationship between parental satisfaction and parents' perceptions of their adolescents and their own personal and social resources. As such, it provides a coherent framework for understanding parental well-being during a critical stage of the family life course. The results suggest that parental satisfaction is negatively related to parents' perceptions that their adolescents are involved in problem behaviors or experiencing challenges in other domains of their lives; however, the relationship between parental satisfaction and adolescents' problem behaviors is mediated by parents' perceptions of their adolescents' characters, including whether or not they have a bad temper and their levels of trustworthiness. With respect to personal and social resources, parents' educational achievement and marital status are positively related to parental satisfaction, and the level of conflict in the spousal relationship is negatively related to parental satisfaction.     

Predictors of early versus late match relationship beginnings in Big Brothers Big Sisters community programs

This study examined patterns and predictors of early versus late match relationship beginnings involving youth and adult volunteer mentors participating in Canadian Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) community mentoring programs. Survival and multinomial logistic regression models were estimated on a sample of 845 youth approved for service from 20 mentoring agencies. Results showed that just over half of the youth (53%) had been paired with a mentor 6 months from the completion of their baseline assessment. At 12 months, 70% had been paired. Compared to never-mentored youth, predictors associated with a reduced chance of an early match beginning (< 6 months) included youth gender (boys) and a rural or small town place of residence. Youth perceptions of emotional support from parents/caregivers and parents' expressed need for another adult in their child's life were associated with an increased chance of both early (< 6 months) and late match beginnings (6 or more months). Implications for agency services are discussed.     

An analysis of the relationship between parenting self-efficacy,the quality of parenting,and parental and child emotional health

ABSTRACT

The relationship between parenting self-efficacy, the quality of parenting, and parental and child emotional health has been conducted with Caucasian families and young children. The purpose of this study was to examine these relationships in ethnically diverse and impoverished families with children who have behavior problems. We examined the relationships between parenting self-efficacy, parenting practices, child externalizing problems, and caregiver depression. Participants included 213 caregivers of children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), who rated their parenting self-efficacy and completed questionnaires on parenting practices (APQ and FAD); child externalizing behaviors (Iowa Connors Inattention and ODD subscales); and caregiver depression (CESD). Data were examined using Chi-Square tests, a Linear Regression, and a One-Way ANOVA. Results demonstrate parenting self-efficacy was positively associated with positive parenting and inversely associated with inconsistent discipline. Among parents who perceived themselves as being a “better than average parent,” there was a greater percentage of youth who met cutoff for inattention problems as compared to youth who did not meet this cutoff. Lastly, depression scores were lowest for caregivers identifying as below average parents. This study underscores the need for involving parents and enhancing parenting self-efficacy in interventions targeting Disruptive Behavior Disorders.     

Concurrent reductions in psychotropic medication,assault, and physical restraint in two residential treatment programs for youth

Over the past decade, the level of clinical needs of youth in residential treatment has increased significantly. Youth in out-of-home settings typically experience higher levels of psychotropic medication use than their peers living at home, even when controlling for the severity of clinical issues. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of an approach to clinically reassess psychotropic medication utilization for youth residing in residential treatment settings while also observing the impact on the youth's need for physical containment. Medication changes were based on a data-informed process, using input from a multi-disciplinary treatment team. Data for 531 youth who were consecutively admitted to one of two non-affiliated intensive residential treatment programs, one in the Midwest and one in New England, was analyzed. Over half of these youth (n = 292, 55%) had their medications reduced during their stay and only 14% (n = 76) were prescribed more medication at discharge than they had been taking at admission. The remainder either saw no change during their stay (n = 104, 20%) or were never on medication at any time (n = 59, 11%). From admission to discharge there was a 62% decrease in the number of assaultive incidents as well as a 72% decrease in the use of physical restraints. These results support the view that residential treatment can provide a treatment milieu that allows for thoughtful reassessment of the clinical basis for behavioral disorders in children that can achieve the dual goals of medication reduction and behavioral stabilization.     

Clusters and Correlates of Experiences With Parents and Peers in Early Adolescence

This study used a person‐oriented approach to examine links between adolescents' experiences with parents and peers. Cluster analysis classified 361, White, working‐ and middle‐class youth (mean age=12.16 years) based on mothers' and fathers' reports of parental acceptance and adolescents' reports of perceived peer competence. Three patterns were identified: high mother and father acceptance and high peer competence; low mother and father acceptance and high peer competence; and high mother acceptance, moderate father acceptance, and low peer competence. The groups differed with respect to youth's and parents' individual characteristics, family and peer dynamics, and youth functioning over time. Discussion focuses on the utility of a person‐oriented approach for studying parent–peer linkages in early adolescence and their implications.