Date of Award:

5-2012

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Melanie M. Domenech Rodríguez

Committee

Melanie M. Domenech Rodríguez

Committee

Gretchen Gimpel Peacock

Committee

Renee V. Galliher

Committee

David Bush

Committee

Ann Bergouth Austin

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to learn if the quality of problem solving, parent engagement, and child engagement improve as a result of participating in a parenting intervention. The quality of problem solving was coded by independent observers watching a 5-minute videotaped task. Parent and child engagement were also coded by an observer and were evident in behaviors such as making eye contact, using good social skills, using humor, minimizing problems, and showing empathy were also rated by individual coders who were blinded to treatment/control groups. Each parent-child pair had a total of three scores, one for each variable of interest.

The participants of this study were involved in a larger study that aimed at culturally adapting a parenting intervention for Latinos and funded by a NIMH K01 award. Participants for the parent study were recruited through local community leaders, word of mouth, and flyers. All participants were of Latino descent. There were a total of six cohorts that participated in this study. For the purpose of the current study, all cohorts were combined into one sample. Results showed that there was no gain in problem solving skills, child engagement, or parental engagement from participating in the intervention group. These skills were taught in the intervention via modeling. The results suggest that to shift parents’ skills and improve parent and child engagement in problem solving, treatment providers likely have to teach these skills directly.

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Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on May 10, 2012.

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