ABSTRACT
While the importance of fathers in unmarried coparent families is a strong area of social and political interest, a dearth of community-based interventions exists for supporting the role of fathers in at-risk families. The Co-Parent Court (CPC) was a 3-year demonstration project evaluating the effectiveness of a collaborative intervention to support unmarried coparents establishing paternity and improving their coparenting relationships and paternal involvement in their child's life. A randomized-control experimental design was employed. The paper will explore father involvement and coparent relationship outcomes.
Subject(s)
Education, Nonprofessional , Fathers/education , Illegitimacy , Mothers/education , Parenting , Paternal Behavior , Adolescent , Adult , Attitude , Case Management , Child Custody/legislation & jurisprudence , Child, Preschool , Family Characteristics , Father-Child Relations , Fathers/legislation & jurisprudence , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Male , Mothers/legislation & jurisprudence , Role , Social Support , Young AdultABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Family-skills training programs prevent adolescent substance use, but few exist for immigrant Latino families. This study assesses the feasibility of a family-skills training intervention developed using a community-based participatory research framework, and explores parental traditional values as a modifier of preliminary effects. DESIGN: One-group pretest-posttest. SETTING: Four Latino youth-serving sites (school, clinic, church, social-service agency). SUBJECTS: Immigrant Latino parents of adolescents aged 10 to 14 years (N â=â 83). INTERVENTION: Eight-session program in Spanish to improve parenting practices and parent-youth interpersonal relations designed with Latino parents and staff from collaborating organizations. MEASURES: Feasibility was assessed through retention, program appropriateness, and group interaction quality. Preliminary outcomes evaluated were (1) parenting self-efficacy, discipline, harsh parenting, monitoring, conflict, attachment, acceptance, and involvement, and (2) parent perception of adolescent internalizing, externalizing, and substance use behaviors. Covariates included sociodemographics and parental endorsement of traditional values. ANALYSIS: Feasibility outcomes were assessed with descriptive statistics. Paired t-tests measured changes in parenting outcomes. Adjusted multiple regression models were conducted for change in each outcome, and t-tests compared mean changes in outcomes between parents with high and low traditional values scores. RESULTS: Program appropriateness and group interaction scores were positive. Improvement was noted for eight parenting outcomes. Parents perceived that adolescent internalizing behaviors decreased. Parents with lower endorsement of traditional values showed greater pretest-posttest change in attachment, acceptance, and involvement. CONCLUSION: This intervention is feasible and may influence parenting contributors to adolescent substance use.
Subject(s)
Community-Based Participatory Research , Mexican Americans , Parenting , Parents/education , Substance-Related Disorders/prevention & control , Adolescent , Adult , Child , Emigrants and Immigrants , Feasibility Studies , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
Young teens and their parents clearly state that the "if you build it, they will come" approach, even if it is well built, is only part of the solution for engaging young people in learning opportunities. Interviews with youth and parents explore what they are doing and what they say they want in their nonschool hours. Opportunities that are flexible, less structured, and more leisure-based emerge as priorities. Although relatively content with the options currently available to them, when pressed, youth and families want more connections between people and age groups as well as more of the free-spirited, organic activities likely to emerge in neighborhoods and communities.
