Poor Parenting Practices Research Articles

The scientific foundation for understanding attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder as a valid psychiatric disorder

Continued questioning of the validity of a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has created uncertainties about its management in the minds of many clinicians and the public. Inaccurate beliefs about the validity of ADHD hinder the clinical care of many ADHD patients and lead to confusion about the need to seek out or accept treatment. Critics describe ADHD as a diagnosis used to label difficult children who are not ill but whose behavior is at the extreme end of normal. They further contend that, far from having a biological basis, ADHD results from poor parenting and ineffective teaching practices. Such attitudes do much to further stigmatize patients and their families and increase the burden of this debilitating condition. This review attempts to address these challenges by presenting evidence to show that ADHD meets the criteria for a valid psychiatric diagnosis. Not only does it cause specific disabling symptoms that frequently persist into adulthood, but many studies show it has a biological basis and a characteristic response to treatment. Such data support the idea that ADHD is a valid diagnostic category.

Exposure to Community Violence and Violence Perpetration: The Protective Effects of Family Functioning

Although research has found that urban youth are exposed to excessive levels of community violence, few studies have focused on the factors that alter the risk of exposure to violence or the processes through which youth who are exposed to community violence do better or worse. This study investigates the risk of exposure to community violence and its relation to violence perpetration among a sample of 263 African American and Latino male youth living in inner-city neighborhoods. The study also examines the role that family functioning plays in moderating the risk. The study finds that youth from struggling families—those that consistently used poor parenting practices and had low levels of emotional cohesion—were more likely to be exposed to community violence. It also finds a relation between exposure to violence and later violence perpetration. However, youth exposed to high levels of community violence but living in families that functioned well across multiple dimensions of parenting and family relationship characteristics perpetrated less violence than similarly exposed youth from less well-functioning families.

Child maltreatment, parent alcohol and drug-related problems, polydrug problems, and parenting practices: a test of gender differences and four theoretical perspectives.

The authors tested how adverse childhood experiences (child maltreatment and parent alcohol- and drug-related problems) and adult polydrug use (as a mediator) predict poor parenting in a community sample (237 mothers and 81 fathers). These relationships were framed within several theoretical perspectives, including observational learning, impaired functioning, self-medication, and parentification-pseudomaturity. Structural models revealed that child maltreatment predicted poor parenting practices among mothers. Parent alcohol- and drug-related problems had an indirect detrimental influence on mothers' parenting and practices through self-drug problems. Among fathers, emotional neglect experienced as a child predicted lack of parental warmth more parental neglect, and sexual abuse experienced as a child predicted a rejecting style of parenting.

Continuity of parenting practices across generations in an at-risk sample: a prospective comparison of direct and mediated associations.

A prospective model of parenting and externalizing behavior spanning 3 generations (G1, G2, and G3) was examined for young men from an at-risk sample of young adult men (G2) who were in approximately the youngest one third of their cohort to become fathers. It was first predicted that the young men in G2 who had children the earliest would show high levels of antisocial behavior. Second, it was predicted that G1 poor parenting practices would show both a direct association with the G2 son's subsequent parenting and a mediated effect via his development of antisocial and delinquent behavior by adolescence. The young fathers had more arrests and were less likely to have graduated from high school than the other young men in the sample. Findings were most consistent with the interpretation that there was some direct effect of parenting from G1 to G2 and some mediated effect via antisocial behavior in G2.

Bullying: It's not just a school problem

Bullying: It's not just a school problem

Correlates of clinic referral for early conduct problems: variable- and person-oriented approaches.

The current study utilized both variable- and person-oriented analyses to examine correlates of early disruptive behavior problems. Participants included 80 preschool boys referred to a child psychiatry clinic and diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder (with or without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) and 80 case-matched normal comparison boys. The study examined four domains of correlates: vulnerable child characteristics, poor parenting practices, insecure attachment, and adverse family ecology. Results indicated that the combination of these factors provided relatively high sensitivity (81%) and specificity (85%), clearly differentiating referred from comparison boys. A dramatic increase in clinic status occurred when three or more factors were present, and specific combinations of factors were differentially predictive of conduct problems. However, no correlates were found to be either necessary or sufficient for clinic status. By maintaining the integrity of individual cases, person-oriented analyses were able to answer different questions than more traditional variable-oriented analyses. Discussion focuses on the value of person-oriented analyses for understanding heterogeneous clinical groups.

The Role of Parent Training with Abusive and Neglectful Parents

As the number of child abuse and neglect reports has soared over the past two decades, family clinicians and researchers have increasingly implemented and evaluated parent training programs designed to insure capable parenting. Referral to a parenting program is common when parents are found to be maltreating their children. Yet, what is the empirical evidence to suggest these programs are effective in changing parent behavior? This paper reviews the current research on the effectiveness of parent training programs aimed at parents at high risk for child maltreatment. It summarizes this literature and draws implications for designing more effective programs to meet the needs of this difficult-to-reach group. Key Words: child maltreatment, high-risk families, parent training, parenting, parenting education. Martha Morrison Dore* and Judy M. Lee As our knowledge of the factors that contribute to good parenting has increased along with our understanding of the effects of poor parenting on outcomes for children, many interventions have been developed that build on this knowledge. Some interventions try to change poor parenting practices into good, or at least better ones. Others aim to prevent poor parenting in the first place. While the former are most often targeted at parents with a specific problem (for example. parenting a child with special emotional or physical needs) or type of behavior (harsh, punitive, abusive, or neglectful parenting) the latter interventions are often open to all parents, irrespective of their parenting capacities. Some authors have differentiated between these two forms of parent training by designating the latter parenting education (Barclay & Houts, 1990). Others limit the term parent training to intervention models based on concepts of behaviorism and principles of social learning theory (Briesmeister & Schaefer, 1998). However, most often the terms parenting education and parent training are used interchangeably to denote a wide range of intervention models designed to enhance parents, capacities to foster optimal child development. Using training techniques to enhance parental functioning and thereby ensure better outcomes for children is a therapeutic approach that has developed markedly over the past several decades. The exponential growth of this approach has been influenced by several factors. One is clearly the development of behavior therapy that lends itself well to a training approach. Another is the deinstitutionalization movement that has returned children and youth with serious emotional and behavior problems to the care of their families and communities, leaving many families desperately searching for new ways to manage difficult children. A third factor is widespread concern over teen parenting, as adolescent parents are often found to lack the skills required for adequate parenting. A fourth factor is the growing body of research in child development and developmental psychopathology focused on early parent-child attachment and its implications for future child functioning. And most important for our purposes here, the final factor is the alarming increase over the past two decades in cases of child abuse and neglect, coupled with the current policy focus on family preservation and prevention of out-ofhome care for children. A common response to an adjudicated case of child maltreatment is court referral to a parent training program. Yet, what empirical evidence is there that such programs can actually change the parenting behaviors that constitute child maltreatment? In this article, we briefly summarize the literature on the effectiveness of parenting programs aimed at abusive and neglectful parents published prior to 1990. We then examine studies of such parenting programs published during the present decade. We hope to discern: (a) whether current parent training programs build on findings of earlier studies; (b) whether the outcome research on parenting programs has become more methodologically rigorous than in times past; and (c) whether there are training models that have been empirically proven to be effective in enhancing parenting skills in abusive and neglectful families. …

Youth Violence in the United States: Major Trends, Risk Factors, and Prevention Approaches

Violence among youths is an important public health problem. Between 1985 and 1991, homicide rates among youths 15–19 years of age increased 154% and remain, today, at historically high levels. This paper reviews the major trends in homicide victimization and perpetration among youths over the last decade, the key risk factors associated with violence, and summarizes the many primary prevention efforts under way to reduce violence. Previous research points to a number of factors that increase the probability of violence during adolescence and young adulthood. Some of these factors include the early onset of aggressive behavior in childhood, social problem-solving skill deficits, exposure to violence, poor parenting practices and family functioning, negative peer influences, access to firearms, and neighborhoods characterized by high rates of poverty, transiency, family disruption, and social isolation. Efforts to address some of the primary risk factors for violence are under way across the United States, but evaluations to confirm program effectiveness are needed.

Earned security, daily stress, and parenting: a comparison of five alternative models.

Research suggests that adults who have developed a coherent perspective on their negative, early attachment relationships (i.e., earned secures) do not reenact poor parenting practices with their own children. However, no studies have addressed whether earned secures maintain positive parenting under the pressures of aversive environmental conditions. This study tested five alternative models that predict how earned secures parent under low and high stress in comparison to adults who had a positive upbringing (i.e., continuous secures) and adults who have an incoherent perspective on a troubled childhood (i.e., insecures). Only if earned secures exhibit effective caregiving under high stress, in comparison to the other security groups, can it be assumed that they have broken the intergenerational cycle of poor parenting. The Adult Attachment Interview was used to classify 97 mothers as earned secure, continuous secure, and insecure. Home observations of parenting and maternal self-reports of daily hassles (our stress measure) were obtained when children were 27 months old. Planned comparisons revealed that the diathesis-stress/incoherent present state of mind model most accurately predicted parenting. Thus, under high stress, the earned secures parented equivalently to the continuous secures and more positively than the insecures; under low stress no group differences were obtained. These findings indicate that in a normative sample earned secures break the intergenerational cycle and exhibit resilient parenting even under high stress conditions.

A Controlled Parenting Skills Outcome Study Examining Individual Difference and Attendance Effects

Recent reviews of family-focused interventions designed to prevent juvenile conduct and substance use problems reveal that these interventions are widely disseminated, but only infrequently evaluated (e.g., Institute of Medicine, 1994; U.S. Department of Justice, 1992). Moreover, the limited number of evaluation studies reported in the literature have often revealed methodological problems (U.S. Department of Justice, 1992; Wiese, 1992, Yoshikawa, 1994). Problems evident in evaluation studies have typically involved deficits in study and intervention design such as lack of experimental control, small sample sizes, highly specific or unrepresentative samples, exclusive reliance on self-report measures, lack of a strong empirical or theoretical base, and failure to evaluate intervention fidelity. Additionally. there has been limited attention to the effects of parent or family characteristics and intervention parameters on outcomes (Kazdin, 1993; Spoth & Redmond. 1994). These deficits have collectively imposed substantial constraints on the validity and generalizability of findings. To address these deficits, the present investigation incorporates an experimental test of a theory-based, universal intervention with a reasonably large (n = 209) sample, multimethod measurement, implementation fidelity checks, and modeling of individual difference and intervention attendance effects on outcomes. The intervention program evaluated in this study, Preparing for the Drug (Free) Years, is based upon the social development model (Catalano & Hawkins, in press; Hawkins, Catalano, & Miller, 1992). This model draws upon social control theory (Hirschi, 1969) through its emphasis on the role of bonding to prosocial others (e.g., family members) as protection against the development of juvenile substance abuse and conduct problems. It also integrates concepts from social learning theory (Akers, 1977; Bandura, 1977b), postulating that bonding is enhanced through the provision of (a) opportunities for child involvement in prosocial interactions and activities, (b) child skills training for prosocial involvements, and (c) consistent rewards for child prosocial involvement and punishments for violations of prosocial norms. Because the Preparing for the Drug (Free) Years intervention is guided by the social development model, it emphasizes the enhancement of protective processes in the family. The outcomes serving as dependent variables in this study are parenting behaviors that can serve a protective role in the prevention of adolescent substance-related problems. Parent behaviors targeted by the program have been described as protective because they potentially reduce either the likelihood of child exposure to risk factors or the deleterious consequences of risk exposure (Benard, 1991; Catalano & Hawkins, in press; Coie et al., 1993; Farrington et al., 1990; Masten, 1994; Masten, Best, & Garmezy, 1991; Rutter, 1990; Spoth & Redmond, 1994; Yoshikawa, 1994). Training in effective parenting skills can improve parents' ability to serve as protective factors or to buffer the risks to which their children are exposed; it can also teach parents to avoid ineffective child management behaviors that can directly increase children's risk for substance abuse and conduct problems (Hawkins et al., 1992). Enhancing parents' ability to engage in protective parenting behaviors can be particularly important as children enter the preadolescent, middle school years. During these years, peers gain increased influence as socialization forces, and the transition from elementary to middle school environments can also increase child exposure to other risk factors (Catalano & Hawkins, in press; Eccles, Midgely, & Wigfield, 1993; Simmons & Blyth, 1987). Moreover, adolescents in rural families experiencing economic stress are more likely to be exposed to family-related risks (e.g., poor parenting practices) than are those in rural families without economic stress (Conger et al. …

The influence of deviant peers on the development of boys' disruptive and delinquent behavior: A temporal analysis

AbstractThe concurrent and predictive influence of deviant peers on boys' disruptive and delinquent behavior was examined in a community sample of fourth- and seventh-grade boys, who were followed-up over six data waves. Analyses were conducted separately for three different types of behavior problems: authority conflict, covert, and overt disruptive behavior. Consistent with the existing literature, concurrent relations between peers' and boys' disruptive behavior were expected to be significant. A more informative test, however, was whether exposure to deviant peers resulted in boys' subsequent initiation of disruptive behavior. Although peer influences were expected in the predictive analyses, the relations were hypothesized to differ by type of behavior. The potential moderating effects of hyperactivity and poor parenting practices were also examined to test the hypothesis that boys who are already at risk for behavior problems will be more susceptible to deviant peer influence. Results supported the significant concurrent and predictive relation between exposure to deviant peers and boys' engagement in disruptive and delinquent behavior. There were no significant moderating effects of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or parenting practices on peer influence.