Parent Training in Decision-Making Facilitation: Skill Acquisition and Relationship to Gender

Abstract

The present controlled study tests the effectiveness of a parent training intervention aimed at teaching participants how to facilitate their adolescent child's decisionmaking ability, which is regarded as an important and developmentally relevant adolescent problem-solving skill. Parents enrolled in a six-session course on decision-making facilitation demonstrated significantly greater skill acquisition in empathic responding and in decision-making facilitation through the generation of alternatives and consequences than either a delayed intervention or a contact control group. In addition, analyses by gender indicate that mothers demonstrated higher performance on each of the target skills than fathers, although both mothers and fathers acquired these skills equally well. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for future research and practice concerning training programs for parents of adolescents. Researchers as well as clinicians have long valued the potential for parent training to ameliorate or prevent child behavior problems (cf. Roberts & Peterson, 1984). More recently, investigations have shown that skills training programs for parents are more effective than training that is provided in a discussion group (Croake & Glover, 1977; Haffey & Levant, 1984; O'Dell, 1974; Pinsker & Geoffrey, 1981; Rinn & Markle, 1977). As Haffey and Levant (1984) have noted, skills training programs typically are comprised of the following components: (a) identification of explicit behavioral objectives, (b) practice of specific skills, (c) group discussion, (d) understanding the rationale for the use of specific skills, (e) sequential presentation of skills, (f) active trainee participation, (g) use of modeling techniques, and (h) use of immediate feedback. Skills training approaches allow for a more systematic presentation of program content and make possible more controlled studies of skill acquisition and program impact (Durlak & Jason, 1984; Haffey & Levant, 1984; O'Dell, 1974; Rinn & Markle, 1977). Currently, two types of skills training approaches are emphasized in parent training research: behavior modification approaches (Becker, 1977; Berkowitz & Graziano, 1972; Gordon & Davidson, 1981; Patterson, 1971) and communication-centered approaches (Dinkmeyer & McKay, 1976; Dreikurs & Soltz, 1964; Gordon, 1970; Levant, 1978). In behavioral skills training, parents are taught social learning theory principles as they pertain to child management, with the aim of producing direct behavior change (Gordon & Davidson, 1981). Parents trained in communication-centered approaches (or what have come to be called democratic approaches to parenting) typically are taught how to identify and respond to their child's feelings, how to determine whether parent or child is most responsible for a problem's ultimate solution, and how to promote adaptive communication between parent and child (Dinkmeyer & McKay, 1976; Gordon, 1970). While each approach has been shown to be somewhat effective in teaching parents target skills and in producing desired changes in children of program participants (cf. Cloake & Glover, 1977; Rose, Battjes, & Leukefeld, 1984), the evidence for the effectiveness of either approach is inconclusive, and may suggest that different skills are acquired depending on the approach used (Haffey & Levant, 1984; Pinsker & Geoffrey, 1981; Tavormina, 1980). This has led