Does Parent Training Have an Effect on Perceived Parenting Competence and Family Life Impairment? the Effects of Parent Training and Ongoing Education on PSOC and Flis Scores

Background: The Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC; Gibaud-Wallston and Wandersman,1978), is a scale used to assess parent’s perceived efficacy and satisfaction with their parenting roles. Gibaud-Wallston and Wanderman (1978) reported acceptable internal consistency of (Cronbach's alpha = .82). The Family Life Impairment Scale(FLIS; Briggs-Gowan, Horwitz, and Carter, 1997), is a parent-report scale used to assess how a child’s behavior, personality, or special needs limits their engagement in activities that are common for families with young children. The FLIS has acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.81) (Carter et al., 2010). Studies suggest that reducing parental stress and improving their sense of competence provides immediate benefits and prevents behavior that leads to problems within the child and the family (Pisterman et al., 1992; Dawson & Osterling, 1997). Higher stress has been found in families with a child with autism spectrum disorders or with externalizing behaviors, compared to typically developed children (Bitsika & Sharpley, 2004). The goal of parent training and behavior therapy is to help parents gain specific skills that work with their child’s behavior, and replace the therapist to generalize their child’s skills and change behavior.

Objectives: This study aims to assess if parent trainings and ongoing parent education in therapy will have a significant impact on reported parental competency and reported family impairment.

Methods: The Pediatric Developmental Center treats children with developmental disorders. Families are either English- or Spanish-speaking and must complete a parent training before starting behavior therapy. Parents are also active participants in their child's behavior therapy. In this study, parents filled out the PSOC and FLIS at the first and last session of either an autism or behavior parent training. There were 203 parent-child dyads, children ranged in age from 2-17. A licensed therapist or a therapist in continuing graduate education led parent trainings once a week for 4 weeks and behavior therapy once a week for 12 or 16 weeks.

Results: Paired-samples t-test were run to examine any significant differences present in between pre- and post- tests for the PSOC and FLIS tests. Additional data will be run to compare these results with PSOC and FLIS scores after behavior therapy.

Conclusions: Can parent training improve family functioning? The current study aims to assess the impact of the parent training intervention on perceived parenting competence and family life impairment. Preliminary results show that there is no significant difference between pre- and post- tests for the PSOC and FLIS. This suggests that parent trainings alone may not be sufficient in improving parenting competence and family life impairment and that behavior therapy with parents as co-therapists is an essential component in creating a change (Schopler & Reichler,1971). Data is currently being collected after behavior therapy. It would be beneficial to measure for each parent at 3 time points: first and last day of the parent training program, and last day of the child’s behavior therapy. Child’s symptom severity would be beneficial information to assess change in maladaptive behaviors and their relationship with parental competency and family impairment.