Understanding parental stress within the Scallywags service for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties

Abstract

The Scallywags service works specifically within home and school environments to promote parent, teacher and child competencies for children at risk of developing behavioural and/or emotional problems. The scheme has been successfully evaluated, demonstrating significant reductions in parental stress for parents involved in the scheme. This paper utilises the previous evaluation data in order to explore a larger sample and understand the relationship between parental stress and conduct difficulties. We also investigated whether demographic factors play a part in accounting for parental stress levels. Parental stress was measured using the Parental Stress Index and children's behaviour was assessed using the Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory. Measures were administered pre- and six-months post-intervention. Clinically higher levels of parental stress were related to higher levels of conduct difficulty. Age, region and number of WAGS (Where Adults Get Support) groups attended were significant independent predictors in accounting for parental stress. Where stress levels decreased post-intervention, conduct difficulties significantly reduced, more so than when there were increases or no change in parental stress.