Abstract
Child-to-parent abuse (CPA) is an under-addressed form of family violence and relatively few resources are available for families experiencing CPA. The Step-Up program is a CPA-specific, family-level, group format intervention program in King County, Washington. Qualitative and long-term research on CPA intervention programs is lacking, and it is unknown how parents perceive the effects of participating in Step-Up after program completion. Fifteen parents who completed Step-Up with their adolescent child participated in individual semi-structured telephone or in-person interviews. Participants were asked about their perceptions of the effects of Step-Up participation, how they and their child have used skills taught in the program, and which program features were most and least effective. Participants expressed largely positive effects of participating in Step-Up, including decreased violent behavior by their adolescents and improved parent-child relationships. Recommendations for improving Step-Up included the inclusion of follow-up sessions to further reinforce behavior change and increased program accessibility.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to sincerely thank all the parents who kindly participated in this study and shared their families’ stories, as well as Lily Anderson and Greg Routt of the Step-Up program.
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Correll, J.R., Walker, S.C. & Edwards, T.C. Parent Perceptions of Participating in a Program for Adolescents Who Are Violent at Home. J Fam Viol 32, 243–255 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-016-9847-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-016-9847-6