Abstract
Objectives
Parent training is the treatment of choice for many childhood problems; yet there are notable gaps among available treatments related to access, content, and target age-range. This study examined the feasibility and initial effects of the Parent Check-In, a two-session preventive intervention based on Self-Determination Theory. The intervention was designed to enhance parents’ motivation and promote parenting skills on dimensions of autonomy support, structure, and involvement.
Methods
Twenty-eight parents (27 mothers, 3 fathers, 2 participating as couples) of elementary school-age children (ages 8–12) participated in a pilot study with an intervention/waitlist control design.
Results
Results revealed that the Parent Check-In attracted parents from a range of families in varying degrees of distress, including several first-time treatment-seekers. Relative to a waitlist control group (n = 8), participants who received the Parent Check-In (n = 20) showed significantly greater increases in parental internal locus of control, autonomy support, and structure provision at a two-week follow-up. Effect sizes were moderate to large. Both groups showed improvements in parent involvement. Intervention effects on parenting stress and sense of efficacy were not significant.
Conclusions
Preliminary evidence supports the efficacy of the Parent Check-In. Future directions for the development and validation of the intervention are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abidin, R. R. (1990). Parenting stress index short form. Charlottesville: Pediatric Psychology Press.
Abidin, R. R. (1995). Parenting stress index. 3rd edn. Lutz: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
Alexander, K. L., Entwisle, D. R., & Dauber, S. L. (1993). First-grade classroom behavior: its short- and long-term consequences for school performance. Child Development, 64, 801–814.
Assemany, A. E., & McIntosh, D. E. (2002). Negative treatment outcomes of behavioral parent training programs. Psychology in the Schools, 39, 209–2019.
Barber, B. K. (1996). Parental psychological control: revisiting a neglected construct. Child Development, 67, 3296–3319. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1996.tb01915.x.
Barber, B. K., Stolz, H. E., & Olsen, J. A. (2005). Parental support, psychological control, and behavioral control: assessing relevance across time, culture, and method. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 70(4), 1–124.
Blacher, J., & Feinfield, K. (2013). Caregiving in middle childhood: coping with typical and atypical development. In R. C. Talley & R. V. Montgomery (Eds), Caregiving across the lifespan: Research, practice, policy (pp. 21–46). New York: Springer Science+Business Media.
Bugental, D. B., Blue, J., & Cruzcosa, M. (1989). Perceived control over caregiving outcomes: implications for child abuse. Developmental Psychology, 25, 532–539.
Campis, L. K., Lyman, R. D., & Prentice-Dunn, S. (1986). The parental locus of control scale: development and validation. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 15, 260–267.
Connell, A. M., & Dishion, T. J. (2008). Reducing depression among at-risk early adolescents: three-year effects of a family-centered intervention embedded within schools. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 574–585.
Córdova, J. V. (2009). The marriage checkup: A scientific program for sustaining and strengthening marital health. New York: Jason Aronson.
Córdova, J. V., Fleming, C. J., Morrill, M. I., Hawrilenko, M., Sollenberger, J. W., Harp, A. G., & Wachs, K. (2014). The Marriage Checkup: a randomized controlled trial of annual relationship health checkups. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 82, 592–604.
Córdova, J. V., Scott, R. L., Dorian, M., Mirgain, S., Yaeger, D., & Groot, A. (2005). The Marriage Checkup: an indicated preventive intervention for treatment-avoidant couples at risk for marital deterioration. Behavior Therapy, 36, 301–309.
Crnic, K. A., Gaze, C., & Hoffman, C. (2005). Cumulative parenting stress across the preschool period: relations tomaternal parenting and child behaviour at age 5. Infant and Child Development, 14, 117–132.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press.
Deković, M., Asscher, J. J., Hermanns, J., Reitz, E., Prinzie, P., & van den Akker, A. L. (2010). Tracing changes in families who participated in the home-start parenting program: parental sense of competence as mechanism of change. Prevention Science, 113, 263–274.
Dishion, T. J., & Kavanagh, K. (2003). Intervening in adolescent problem behavior: A family centered approach. New York: Guilford Press.
Dishion, T. J., & McMahon, R. J. (1998). Parental monitoring and the prevention of child and adolescent problem behavior: a conceptual and empirical formulation. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 1, 61–75.
Dishion, T. J., Shaw, D., Connell, A., Gardner, F., Weaver, C., & Wilson, M. (2008). The Family Check-Up with high risk indigent families: preventing problem behavior by increasing parents’ positive behavior support in early childhood. Child Development, 79, 1395–1414.
Faber, A., & Mazlish, E. (2000). How to talk so kids will listen & listen so kids will talk (updated ed.). New York: Perennial Currents.
Faber, A., & Mazlish, E. (2010). How to talk so kids will listen: Group workshop kit. New York: Faber/Mazlish Workshops, LLC.
Farkas, M. S., & Grolnick, W. S. (2010). Examining the components and concomitants of parental structure in the academic domain. Motivation and Emotion, 34, 266–279.
Finn, S. E. (1996). Manual for using the MMPI-2 as a therapeutic intervention. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Finn, S. E., & Tonsager, M. E. (1997). Information-gathering and therapeutic models of assessment: complementary paradigms. Psychological Assessment, 9, 374–385.
Flechner, L., & Tseng, T. Y. (2011). Understanding results: p-values, confidence intervals, and number need to treat. Indian Journal of Urology, 27=, 532–535.
Forgatch, M. S., & Patterson, G. R. (2010). Parent management training—Oregon Model: an intervention for antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. In J. R. Weisz & A. E. Kazdin (Eds), Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents (2nd edn, pp. 159–177). New York: Guilford Press.
Freed, R. D., & Tompson, M. C. (2011). Predictors of parental locus of control in mothers of pre- and early adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 40, 100–110.
Fortier, M., Hogg, W., O’Sullivan, T. L., Blanchard, C., Reid, R. D., Sigal, R. J., Boulay, P., Doucet, E., Sweet, S., Bisson, E., & Beaulac, J. (2007). The Physical Activity Counselling (PAC) randomized controlled trial: rationale, methods, and interventions. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 32, 1170–1185.
Froiland, J. (2011). Parental autonomy support and student learning goals: a preliminary examination of an intrinsic motivation intervention. Child and Youth Care Forum, 40, 135–149.
Froiland, J. M. (2015). Parents’ weekly descriptions of autonomy supportive communication: Promoting children’s motivation to learn and positive emotions. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24, 117–126.
Froiland, J. M., & Worrell, F. C. (2017). Parental autonomy support, community feeling and student expectations as contributors to later achievement among adolescents. Educational Psychology, 37, 261–271.
Gray, M., & Steinberg, L. (1999). Unpacking authoritative parenting: reassessing a multidimensional construct. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 61, 574–587.
Grolnick, W. S., Deci, E. I., & Ryan, R. M. (1997). Internalization within the family: the self-determination theory perspective. In J. E. Grusec & L. Kuczynski (Eds), Parenting and children’s internalization of values: A handbook of contemporary theory (pp. 135–161). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Grolnick, W. S., Raftery-Helmer, J. N., Flamm, E. S., Marbell-Pierre, K. N., & Cardemil, E. V. (2014a). Parental provision of academic structure and the transition to middle school. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 25, 668–684.
Grolnick, W. S., Raftery-Helmer, J. N., Marbell-Pierre, K. N., Flamm, E. S., Cardemil, E. V., & Sanchez, M. (2014b). Parental provision of structure: implementation and correlates in three domains. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 60, 355–384.
Grolnick, W. S., & Ryan, R. M. (1989). Parent styles associated with children’s self-regulation and competence in school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81, 143–154.
Grolnick, W. S., & Slowiaczek, M. L. (1994). Parents’ involvement in children’s schooling: a multidimensional conceptualization and motivational model. Child Development, 65, 237–252.
Haggerty, K. P., Fleming, C. B., Lonczak, H. S., Oxford, M. L., Harachi, T. W., & Catalano, R. F. (2002). Predictors of participation in parenting workshops. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 22, 375–387.
Hutchins, S. S., Brown, C., Mayberry, R., & Sollecito, W. (2015). Value of a small control group for estimating intervention effectiveness: Results from a simulations of immunization effectiveness studies. Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research. https://doi.org/10.2217/cer.15.11.
Johnston, C., & Mash, E. J. (1989). A measure of parenting satisfaction and efficacy. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 18, 167–175.
Joussemet, M., Mageau, G. A., & Koestner, R. (2014). Promoting optimal parenting and children’s mental health: a preliminary evaluation of the How-To Parenting Program. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23, 949–964.
Kataoka, S. H., Zhang, L., & Wells, K. B. (2002). Unmet need for mental health care among U.S. children: variation by ethnicity and insurance status. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 159, 1548–1555.
Katz, K. S., El-Mohandes, A., Johnson, D., Jarrett, M., Rose, A., & Cober, M. (2001). Retention of low income mothers in a parenting intervention study. Journal of Community Health, 26, 203–218.
Kumpfer, K. L., & Alvarado, R. (2003). Family-strengthening approaches for the prevention of youth problem behaviors. American Psychologist, 58, 457–465.
Lovejoy, M., Verda, M., & Hays., C. (1997). Convergent and discriminant validity of measures of parenting efficacy and control. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 26, 366–376.
Marbell, K. N., & Grolnick, W. S. (2013). Correlates of parental control and autonomy support in an interdependent culture: a look at Ghana. Motivation and Emotion, 37, 79–92.
Markland, D., Ryan, R. M., Tobin, V., & Rollnick, S. (2005). Motivational interviewing and self-determination theory. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24, 811–831.
Miller, W. R., Sovereign, R., & Krege, B. (1988). Motivational interviewing with problem drinkers: the Drinker’s Check-up as a preventive intervention. Behavioural Psychotherapy, 16, 251–268.
Morrill, M., Eubanks-Fleming, C. J., Harp, A. G., Sollenberger, J. W., Darling, E. V., & Córdova, J. V. (2011). The Marriage Checkup: increasing access to marital health care. Family Process, 50, 471–485.
Morsbach, S. K., & Prinz, R. J. (2006). Understanding and improving the validity of self-report of parenting. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 9, 1–21.
National Center for Health Statistics (2011). Health Data Interactive. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hdi.htm.
Ng, J. Y. Y., Ntoumanis, N., & Thogersen-Ntoumani, C. (2014). Autonomy support and control in weight management: what important others do and say matter. British Journal of Health Psychology, 19, 540–552.
Patterson, G. R., & Dishion, T. J. (1988). Multilevel family process models: traits, interactions, and relationships. In R. Hinde & J. Stevenson-Hinde (Eds), Relationships and families: Mutual influences (pp. 283–310). Oxford: Clarendon.
Patterson, G. R., Forgatch, M. S., & DeGarmo, D. S. (2010). Cascading effects following intervention. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 949–970.
Prinz, R. J., Foster, S. L., Kent, R. N., & O’Leary, K. (1979). Multivariate assessment of conflict in distressed and nondistressed mother-adolescent dyads. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 12, 691–700.
Putnick, D. L., Bornstein, M. H., Hendricks, C., Painter, K. M., Suwalsky, J. D., & Collins, W. (2008). Parenting stress, perceived parenting behaviors, and adolescent self-concept in European American families. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 752–762.
Resnicow, K., DiIorio, C., Soet, J. E., Borrelli, B., Hecht, J., & Ernst, D. (2002). Motivational interviewing in health promotion: it sounds like something is changing. Health Psychology, 21, 444–451.
Roberts, M. W., Joe, V. C., & Rowe-Halben, A. (1992). Oppositional child behavior and parental locus of control. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 21, 170–177.
Robin, A. L., & Foster, S. L. (1989). Negotiating parent-adolescent conflict: A behavioral-family systems approach. New York: Guilford Press.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2017). Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness. New York: Guilford Press.
Ryan, R. M., Plant, R. W., & O’Malley, S. (1995). Initial motivations for alcohol treatment: relations with patient characteristics, treatment involvement, and dropout. Addictive Behaviors, 20, 279–297.
Safford, S. M., Alloy, L. B., & Pieracci, A. (2007). A comparison of two measures of parental behavior. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 16, 375–384.
Sanders, M. R. (2008). Triple P-Positive Parenting Program as a public health approach to strengthening parenting. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 506–517.
Sanders, M., Turner, K., & Markie-Dadds, C. (2002). The development and dissemination of the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program: a multilevel, evidence-based system of parenting and family support. Prevention Science, 3, 173–189.
Schaefer, E. S. (1965). Children’s reports of parental behavior: an inventory. Child Development, 36, 413–424. https://doi.org/10.2307/1126465.
Shaw, D. S., Dishion, T. J., Supplee, L., Gardner, F., & Arnds, K. (2006). A family-centered approach to the prevention of early-onset antisocial behavior: two-year effects of the Family Check-Up in early childhood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 1–9.
Shumow, L., & Lomax, R. (2002). Parental efficacy: predictor of parenting behavior and adolescent outcomes. Parenting: Science and Practice, 2, 127–150.
Silk, J. S., Morris, A. S., Kanaya, T., & Steinberg, L. (2003). Psychological control and autonomy granting: opposite ends of a continuum or distinct constructs? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 13, 113–128.
Simpson, G. A., Cohen, R. A., Pastor, P. N., & Reuben, C. A. (2008). Use of Mental health services in past 12 months by children aged 4–17 years: United States, 2005-2006. National Center for Health Statistics Brief. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db08.pdf.
Skinner, E. A., Johnson, S. J., & Snyder, T. (2005). Six dimensions of parenting: a motivational model. Parenting: Science & Practice, 5, 175–235.
Soenens, B., Luyckx, K., Vansteenkiste, M., Duriez, B., & Goossens, L. (2008). Clarifying the link between parental psychological control and adolescents’ depressive symptoms: reciprocal versus unidirectional models. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54, 411–444.
Soenens, B., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2005). Antecedents and outcomes of self-determination in three life domains: the role of parents’ and teachers’ autonomy support. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 34, 589–604.
Spoth, R. L., Goldberg, C., & Redmond, C. (1999). Engaging families in longitudinal preventive intervention research: discrete-time survival analysis of socioeconomic and social-emotional risk factors. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 157–163.
Stipek, D., & Mac Iver, D. (1989). Developmental change in children’s assessment of intellectual competence. Child Development, 60, 521–538.
Taylor, T. K., & Biglan, A. (1998). Behavioral family interventions for improving child-rearing: a review of the literature for clinicians and policy makers. Clinical Child and Family Review, 1, 41–60.
US Department of Health and Human Services (2000). Mental health fact sheet. http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/08/boys/factsheets/mh/report.pdf.
Vasquez, A. C., Patall, E. A., Fong, C. J., Corrigan, A. S., & Pine, L. (2016). Parent autonomy support, academic achievement, and psychosocial functioning: a meta-analysis of research. Educational Psychology Review, 28, 605–644.
Wilkinson, L., Task Force on Statistical Inference. (1999). Statistical methods in psychology journals: guidelines and explanations. American Psychologist, 54, 594–604.
Wang, Q., Pomerantz, E. M., & Chen, H. (2007). The role of parents’ control in early adolescents’ psychological functioning: a longitudinal investigation in the United States and China. Child Development, 78, 1592–1610.
Webster-Stratton, C., & Herman, K. C. (2008). The impact of parent behavior-management training on child depressive symptoms. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55, 473–484.
Webster-Stratton, C., Rinaldi, J., & Reid, J. M. (2011). Long-term outcomes of incredible years parenting program: predictors of adolescent adjustment. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 16, 38–46.
West, S. G., Finch, J. F., & Curran, P. J. (1995). Structural equation models with nonnormal variables: problems and remedies. In R. H. Hoyle (Ed.), Structural Equation Modeling: Concepts, Issues and Applications (pp. 56–75). Newbery Park: Sage.
Williams, G. C., McGregor, H., Sharp, D., Levesque, C. S., Kouides, R. W., Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2006). Testing a self-determination theory intervention for motivating tobacco cessation: supporting autonomy and competence in a clinical trial. Health Psychology, 25, 91–101.
Williams, G. C., Patrick, H., Niemiec, C. P., Ryan, R. M., Deci, E. L., & Lavigne, H. M. (2011). The smoker’s health project: a self-determination theory intervention to facilitate maintenance of tobacco abstinence. Contemporary Clinical Trials, 32, 535–543.
Author Contributions
E.S.A. collaborated on the design and execution of the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. W.S.G. collaborated on the design and execution of the study and contributed to the writing of the paper. J.V.C. Collaborated on the design of the study and contributed to editing the final manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee (approval provided by Clark University) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Informed Consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Additional information
Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Allen, E.S., Grolnick, W.S. & Córdova, J.V. Evaluating a Self-Determination Theory-Based Preventive Parenting Consultation: The Parent Check-In. J Child Fam Stud 28, 732–743 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-01309-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-01309-0