Практические аспекты работы с родителями в профилактике психологического насилия над детьми в семье

Abstract

The issue of child abuse has been addressed by various agencies and authorities. Child abuse is often concealed, and some parents remain convinced that corporal punishment is an effective means of family upbringing. Psychological abuse is often used as an educational and disciplinary measure. While parents are not educated on how to be parents, they are expected to achieve positive results and are judged and condemned when unsuccessful. Today there is an effort to assist parents by organising various forms of group interaction, as well as by implementing programs aimed to improve parenting skills. However, such programs generally focus on the prevention of physical abuse and devote less attention to psychological abuse. This substantiates the need for creating a specific program for the prevention of psychological abuse. This article presents the results of a pilot study on the implementation of a prevention program in the form of a psychological training seminar which focuses on parenting skills development. It is further suggested that this way of interaction with parents may contribute to lower rates of psychological abuse towards children at home. There were 9 respondents involved in the pilot study, all were raising teenage children, residing in St Petersburg, and receiving social assistance from local public institutions. There were positive changes in the parents’ value orientations, particularly, a progress in their understanding and acceptance of the child’s real abilities, and in the willingness of the parents to spend time with their children. Towards the end of the program, all the participants improved the level of their parenting skills. In difficult communication situations between the parent and the teenager there was a decrease in unconstructive types of behaviour and an increase in constructive types. The most important achievement of the program is the fact that the children noticed the positive changes in their interactions with the parents and in the parents’ behaviour. Among the observed changes were easier and more pleasant communication, a longer time of interaction, decrease in the number of conflicts, willingness to spend time together, a better understanding of the child, and a clearer expression of ideas and requests by the parent.