Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1981

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Educational Psychology and Guidance

Major Professor

Charles L Thompson

Committee Members

Lawrence M DeRidder, Donald J Dickinson, Leo F Droppleman

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) program in changing mothers and their target children's perceptions of behavior with participants from two socioeconomic (SES) levels, low to lower middle and middle to upper middle. The STEP program was published in 1976, is a nine session program incorporating Adlerian principles with communication techniques, and emphasizes democratic principles of child rearing. The dependent variables for the study were mothers' perceptions of their target child's behavior, mothers' attitudes toward their target child's rights and liberties, and target children's perceptions of their mothers' behaviors.

Instruments used for data collection included Adlerian Parental Assessment of Child Behavior Scale, Attitude Toward the Freedom of Children Scale--II, and the Parent Behavior Inventory. In addition, participants filled out a personal data questionnaire and kept a daily diary by following the directions from a Critical Incidents Technique.

Participants for the study consisted of volunteer mothers and their target children, ages seven to thirteen, from the two general socio-economic (SES) levels. An equal number of mothers from each SES level were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The target children selected by their mothers comprised the experimental and control groups. Following attrition, a total of ten experimental and ten control mothers from the middle to upper middle SES groups and a total of five experimental and five control mothers from the low to lower middle SES groups who had attended at least six sessions were included in data analysis. The group leader had conducted at least two STEP groups and was a trained counselor.

The personal data information was analyzed according to status index guidelines which verified that two distinct socio-economic groups were represented. A pre-post control group design was used for the study and a one way analysis of covariance to test Hypotheses I through VI; a Critical Incidents Technique was used to analyze data to test Hypothesis VII.

The one way ANCOVA showed that STEP was significantly effective in changing the experimental middle to upper middle SES mothers' perceptions of their target children's behavior (F=7.28) but not significant for the low to lower middle SES group (F=.60). The one way ANCOVA showed that STEP was not significantly effective in changing attitudes toward the freedom of children for any mothers' groups CF=2.20 and .01, respectively).

On the Parent Behavior Inventory, ANCOVA revealed that STEP was significantly effective according to middle to upper middle target children's perceptions of parents on factors of positive evaluation (F=5.47) and significantly effective according to low to lower middle SES target children's perceptions of parents on the factor of Nagging and Intimidation (F=5.11). Both groups of experimental children reported that they perceived a lessening (but not significantly) of Ignoring-Rejecting behaviors by their mothers. The low to lower middle experimental children reported an increase in positive evaluation but results did not reach significance. Results of the Parent Behavior Inventory indicate children do perceive changes in their mothers on the factors of Positive Evaluation, Nagging and Intimidation, and Ignoring and Rejecting behaviors but perceive little to no difference on factors of Covert Psychological Control, Overt Control, and Autonomy.

The data gathered in the experimental mothers' diaries indicated that the middle and upper middle SES mothers were more aware of their feelings and more aware of alternative ways of relating to their target children than the low to lower middle SES mothers. (Group percentage scores were 80.5% and 56%, respectively).

Suggestions for further study include restricting the study to a larger population of low to lower middle SES group, using STEP with minority groups, using STEP with both parents present, using an interview technique in combination with other techniques to gather data, etc.

Download
Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS