Parenting Communication Skills Classes

This paper is a complete research project studying the effectiveness of one parenting communication skills class for parents who were court-mandated to attend such classes because of child abuse.

This paper reports that the study offers limited value due to the number of participants (n=12), no reliability or validity of the self-administered questionnaires, and participants had to be able to read and write English; nonetheless, a questionnaire is included so that a study with a large sample can yield more valid results, and other social workers can adapt the study to their own needs. The author points out that parenting programs can be effective, but some people believe that parenting programs are most effective as preventive measures. The paper suggests parenting programs need to be tailored to the specific population it is intended to serve. Table and graphs.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Literature Review
Need for Interventions
Effectiveness of Parenting Programs
Research Question
Research Hypothesis
Methodology/Procedure
Results
Demographic Characteristics
Study Limitations
Discussion and Conclusion
Implications for Social Work Practice
Appendix
Letters
Questionnaire
“The participants in this study consisted of the opportunist sample of 12 parents. Four out of 12 were in voluntary attendance. Overall a sample of 83 % female (n=10), and 17 % male (n=2). The mode was 35 mean age of the sample was 35 years (standard deviation (aD)= 6.807). Five out of 12 participants completed High School; four out of 12 did not complete High School; two out of 12 participants completed some college and one participant held at least one college degree. Other demographics dissipated on the graphs below.”