Can Grassroots Parent Educational Programs Compete with Nationally

Prominent Programs to Prevent Child Abuse?

Margaret Coombes, PhD

University of the Fraser Valley, BC, Canada

Can grassroots parent educational programs compete with nationally prominent programs to prevent child abuse?

• Prevalence Child Protection Services (CPS) Investigations

• Families, abuse &poverty

• Community Based Research

• Preliminary Findings: Phase 1 – Focus Group

• Conclusion & Phase 2

Canadian Child Maltreatment

• 235,842 maltreatment Child

Protection Services (CPS)

investigations in Canada

(2008)

• Estimated that 75% were

children under the age of 12

years

• 26% of families investigated

remained open for on-going

services (Public, H. A. O. C., 2010).

• 8% placed out of the home in

foster care or in formal or informal

kinship arrangements (Public, H. A. O. C.,

2010).

• Disproportional representation of

First Nations, Aboriginal children

investigated & in care in Canada (Sinha, Trocmé, Fallon, & MacLaurin, 2013)

Families, Abuse and Poverty

• Poverty compounds many issues related to child abuse(English, Graham, Litrownik, Everson, & Bangdiwala, 2005)

• British Columbia - rich province, most unequal distribution of wealth between rich & poor (Broadbent Report ,2014)

• In 2013, BC has the highest rate of child poverty in Canada (First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, 2014).

• 49.8% of children living with single-mothers are living in poverty children (First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, 2014).

• Child Care in Greater Vancouver ($1200.00 - $1800.oo CA) £ 644.64 to £ 966.95 (Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC, 2014)

Parent Education & Child Abuse

• Debate to focus on parenting or related problems, such as parental substance abuse, parental mental illness, domestic violence, and child conduct problems and/or issues of poverty (Barth, 2009; English,

Graham, Litrownik, Everson, & Bangdiwala, 2005)

• Parent educational programs are more likely to have better outcomes if the service includes some of the following factors: a focus on early childhood interventions, peer support groups for parents, and clear strategies to engage families, among others (Barth,

R. P., 2009).

Community Research

Collaborative of a University, a non-profit agency & Child Welfare

• Long-term mixed study

• Objective to evaluate the effectiveness of the program to engage parents, improve participants’ parenting skills, improve parent & child interactions (decrease abuse & neglect), or increase parents’ competencies in problem-solving.

Community Research

• Non-profit agency (ACS) interactive parent educational

programs

• Large agency, 70 programs, serve 38,000, Triple P., seeking

evidence based

• 70% of the participants referred by Child Welfare

• Participants primarily mothers & receiving social assistance

• Initial Phase: Focus Groups and Process Analysis

Focus Groups

Demographics

Total Participants N = 43

Parents

N= 14

• 12 - Female

• 2 - Male

• 6 - 20 to 29 years

• 3 - 30 to 34 years

• 40 years & older - 4

Social Workers N= 23

• 3 - Less than 1 to 5 years experience

• 8 - 5 to 15 years

• 3 - 15 years plus

Non-profit Staff

N=6

• 2 - Less than 1 year experience

• 2 - 5 to 15 years

• 2 - Over 20 Years-

Themes

• Positive communication such as respect, trust, non-judgmental, caring: between parents and non-profit agency staff, and social workers and agency staff, parents and family members

• Child care services

• Transportation

• Benefits of attending group

• Need more programs, more times, different locations, advertise, etc.

Parents’ Comments on Communication

• Main ideas expressed by parents regarding the agency staff and between classmates included, support, respect, friendly, non-judgmental

• “(Group facilitators) They’re beyond, like I know if we need to talk to them about something, that they’re very approachable, and I feel very comfortable, they’re non-judgmental…”

• “(Facilitators) …someone I could talk to, or I could phone them if I wanted to, and leave them a message,…, how should I do this because I’m not sure”

• “When you’re in a group like this, everyone else is in the same boat, you can support each other, exchanging numbers, you know, you talk about your experiences, it helps support that person, to make them feel that they’re not alone”

Comments on Childcare

• “I wouldn’t have been able to come today because my mom has gone away on a trip, cause I have to be with my kids”

• “…it’s great for the kids to socialize and hang out with other kids”

• “the child care providers are wonderful with the kids. They’re great. And you know, the snack they provide are always healthy snacks, they’re great”

Parents’ & Social Workers’ Comments

• Negative – accessibility, several mentioned they had to wait at a bus stop where they used to work the street or hung-out

• “If you come during the day, they have transportation for those classes”

• Parent and social workers wanted transportation provided for every program

Workers’ Comments

• “she was in the process of leaving an unhealthy relationship, and her whole demeanor changed because she went from coming to group always with her head down and sitting..., solemn, so much, and now she’s perked up”

• “now they’re clean and free, you know, they’re physical appearance, you can see more self care, you can see more positive self talk, …is really working hard on her self talk, and you know, ability to sort of give herself permission and recognition for where she had come from…”

Parents’ Comments

“Learned others are like me, away from stigma, everyone

has crisis, learn from their experiences, we’re part of the

community, & it doesn’t make you a bad person, happy with

your choices”

• “It really changed my outlook on how to be a parent and how to

be a good parent, because I wasn’t taught how to be a parent

when I was in a home”

• “I’m not fighting with the kids,…, it helps me a lot with them”

Overall experiences

• “my daughter is 7 now, she was taken at birth because of drug issues, soI was forced to come here, I was forced to jump through hoops, and I was pissed off about it, and then I just did a group, just a couple months back, on my own”

• “I enjoy the home visit, that’s my favourite.... they write in what the state of the home is, so they’re not going to clean their house, and they’re not going to do the same things, …Like I mean that kind of information to us is super useful”

Parent

Child Protection

FinancialEmployment

Child Care & Transportation

Community Connections

Family & Partner

Relationship

Conclusion & Next Steps

• Overall, experience was positive, agency’s staff

described as passionate & caring

• Many participants requested & attended more than one

educational program

• Referrals for children developmental issues

• CPS family services or family development staff were

more likely to make referrals (60 days) compared to

investigative staff (30 day) who seldom made referrals

Conclusion & Next Steps,

• Although children were reported to have behavioural

changes, parents’ behavioural changes were the most

frequently mentioned in the groups

• Agency staff reported observed behaviours & gave direct

feedback to parents

• Compared to other parenting programs, lower costs to

sustain own program

• Phase 2 one year, re-reports to CPS, (100 families)pre &

post behavioural scales/instruments, anonymous self-reports

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1. Could you please share with everyone your first name and what Family Education group(s) you have attended or have

completed at Abbotsford Community Services (ACS)? (Have flip chart or piece of paper with list of groups for participants

to refer to)

2. Could you describe what your experience was coming to the Abbotsford Community Services Family Education Program for

the first time?

3. Was the program(s) what you expected? Please explain.

4. Who do you think benefits from attending these groups?

5. In your experience, what are some of the reasons a parent would attend a Family Education group?

6. Did the Family Education group change the way you think about anything? Please explain