IMPROVING PROBLEMATIC DENTAL BEHAVIOR OF CHILDREN THROUGH TIME-LIMITED ADLERIAN PARENT EDUCATION.

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to determine if participation by mothers and their children in a time-limited parent education intervention would influence the children's oral hygiene status and to determine if there was a generalization effect of the parent education intervention on responsibility in the home. A secondary purpose of the study was to observe the influence of the intervention over time in order to ascertain ways in which the intervention might be strengthened. The research design was an adapted multiple time series design. Twenty middle socioeconomic level mothers in rural West Virginia with at least one child between the ages of seven and eleven who did not assume responsibility for brushing his or her teeth were randomly assigned to an experimental and control group. The ten mothers in each group accompanied their target child and siblings to two dental hygiene appointments, one week apart, at the Dental Hygiene Clinic at the West Virginia Institute of Technology. The mothers and their children in the experimental group participated in an Adlerian counseling interview. All children received an oral prophylaxis, X-rays, toothbrushing instruction and a toothbrush. Oral hygiene observations were collected by independent dental hygienists on random days at school before, during and following the treatment for five weeks. Inter- and intrarater reliability checks were made throughout the study. The Adlerian Parental Assessment of Child Behavior Scale (APACBS) was administered to all parents during the initial appointment and during the second and fifth weeks after the second appointment. Analyses of variance and covariance indicated at the .05 level of significance that specific parental involvement is necessary to stimulate children to assume responsibility for their oral hygiene care. It appeared that a generalization effect occurred in the home although caution is expressed regarding this interpretation. Parent evaluation reported that while all parents reacted favorably to the program, more parents in the experimental group indicated that the program had an effect on them and their children. Based on the results and the parental satisfaction, no specific recommendations were made to strengthen the parent education intervention within the time frame investigated. Recommendations for future research are made.