This project focuses on a media-based strategy (i.e., television-type programming) for positively impacting parenting and child behavior in the general population. The strategy is guided by goals to use a minimally sufficient intervention in a non-stigmatizing context, working within a self-regulatory framework and building on interesting and engaging content. The intervention is based on theoretical and empirical foundations that include social learning models of parent-child interaction, social information processing, and developmental research applied to parenting in everyday contexts. Using a 12-episode infotainment-style television series on families and parenting based on an empirically validated system of interventions, the project involves two universal-intervention studies with parents of 2-8 year-old children in the general population. Both studies (one with single-parent, the other with two-parent households) are randomized experimental designs comparing the television parenting series to non-parenting-series-comparison and wait-list-control conditions. Outcome variables include parenting competence (reported and observed), parental confidence, child pro-social behavior, child behavior problems (reported and observed), child functioning outside the home, and parental conflict over parenting. Goals include: (1) determining the impact of the television parenting series on parents and their children; (2) comparing impact of the parenting series to that of a non-parenting child development series; (3) investigating program benefits as a function of initial level of child functioning; (4) evaluating consumer acceptability; and (5) exploring experimental effects of the media strategy as a function of racial group and general SES level. The methodology includes use of controlled randomized designs, stratified blocking, multi-modal multi-informant measures known to be sensitive to change including systematic observation of parent-child interaction, ATI analyses, and covariance analyses to control for initial levels of functioning. The project will contribute new knowledge about the impact and acceptability of universal television programming to enhance parenting and promote child development in the general population. ? ?
| Schueler, Christie M; Prinz, Ronald J (2013) The role of caregiver contingent responsiveness in promoting compliance in young children. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 44:370-81 |
