Dealing with Disobedience: A Randomized-Controlled Trial Investigating Changes in Parent Attitudes to Smacking, Parent Anger and Affect Following a Brief Parenting Intervention

Abstract

Abstract: Child behaviour problems (inclusive of disobedience) are common in young children and whilst they can be difficult to manage, parental management is important in reducing long-term, adverse outcomes (Kalb & Loeber, 2003; Wilson & White, 2006). Research has shown that parents smack their child as a consequence for disobedience (non-compliance), particularly when they are angry or frustrated and when other strategies are not successful (Brownlie & Anderson, 2006). Although smacking may encourage short-term compliance it is associated with a range of adverse outcomes such as increased behaviour problems, long-term behaviour problems and disobedience, increased aggression, anti-social behaviour, poor mental health, the risk of more serious behaviour problems, and poor parent-child relationships (Bitensky, 2006; Gershoff, 2010; Kalb & Loeber, 2003; Slade & Wissow, 2004; Vittrup & Holden, 2010). Research has shown that having supportive attitudes towards smacking as a discipline strategy predicts greater use of smacking (Ateah & Durrant, 2005). Therefore targeting attitudinal change in interventions may be an effective way to reduce support for, and the use of, smacking in response to child non-compliance. There is limited evidence into whether parenting interventions change attitudes to smacking and the extent to which brief interventions impact parental anger and affect. This research addresses this gap by using a longitudinal design to examine whether a brief positive parenting intervention can change parental attitudes to smacking and reduce parent anger and reduce parent negative affect. A randomized-controlled design was used to examine the impact of a 2-hour Triple P Disobedience Discussion Group on child and family variables. One hundred and forty-one parents were randomly allocated to either the intervention or waitlist control condition. Participants in the intervention condition received a range of parenting strategies that could be used to manage common child behaviour problems. Data were collected pre-intervention, post-intervention, and for the intervention group at 5 month follow-up. It was hypothesized that parents in the intervention condition would report fewer child behaviour problems, lower levels of dysfunctional parenting styles, lower levels of parental anger (intensity and frequency), less supportive attitudes to smacking, lower levels of stress and more positive (less negative) affect as compared to parents in the waitlist control condition. The results showed that parents in the intervention condition reported significant improvements for child behaviour, parenting styles, parent anger and parental attitudes to smacking. No differences were found for parent stress and affect. Clinical and research implications of the findings are discussed along with recommendations for future research.