A Comparison of Two Parent Education Programs on the Reduction of Parent-Child Stress in Mother-Child Relationships of Hispanic Migrant Farmworkers

Abstract

The present study examined the efficacy of two parent training programs in reducing perceived parental stress in a sample of Spanish speaking migrant farmworkers of Hispanic origin. Sixty-eight Spanish-speaking mothers, referred for parenting classes because one of their children was experiencing behavioral or emotional difficulties, were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: (1) 1-2-3 Magic, a behaviorally-based program; (2) Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP), an Adlerian-based program; (3) attention-placebo condition; and, (4) wait-list control group. All treatment conditions were presented in Spanish, and offered at convenient times and locations for participants. Parental stress was measured with the Spanish version of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF), using the Total Stress Score, and the three subscale scores: Parental Distress Score, Parent-Child Dysfunctional Interaction Score, and Difficult Child Score. Assessments were completed at pretest, posttest, and at a three-month follow-up. A repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance on the dependent measures revealed significant differences for groups across the three assessment periods. Subsequent analyses indicated that the behaviorally-based program produced significantly greater reductions on the Total Stress Score and Parental Distress Score at posttest and follow-up than the Adlerian program, the attention-placebo group, and the wait-list group. The behaviorally-based program was also more effective in reducing parent-child dysfunctional interaction than the attention-placebo group at posttest and follow-up, and the wait-list control group at follow-up, but not in comparison to the Adlerian program. These results lend support for behaviorally-based parent training in reducing perceived parental stress in this migrant farmworker population. To ensure treatment integrity, a parent trainer validity check was used in which expert parent educators rated randomly selected videotaped segments of each parent training session on five criteria. Statistical analysis of treatment validity revealed no significant differences in mean scores of expert raters across parenting groups, suggesting that the parent trainer behaved consistently on the criteria across all treatment conditions. The results are also discussed in relation to the literature on parent training. In addition, the limitations of the present study, as well as future directions for research are discussed.