Perceptions of parent educators on the effectiveness of parenting classes in preventing child abuse, 2006

This descriptive study explores the efficacy of parenting classes in preventing child abuse as perceived by parenting educators. The parent educators were selected from the listing of Parenting Classes on the United Way Website for Metro Atlanta and a listing of Social Service Agencies in New York City where parenting classes were identified. The parents in the parenting classes were either court appointed, walk-in (voluntary), or referred by a Child Welfare Agency. Purposive sampling was used to select the parent educators. The sample consist of 14 parent educators who participated by completing a survey of 19 open-ended questions seeking their perceptions of the effectiveness of parenting classes. All responding educators were female; seventy-one percent (10) were African American. The ages range from 36 years to 56 (+) years of age. Thirteen out of nineteen of the open-ended questions on the survey were organized into different categories: major concepts around parenting; difficulty in grasping concepts; parenting issues today; cultural differences in parenting; men's attitude toward parenting role; parenting issue differentials for young and older parents; parents' commitment to parenting; parents' motivation to actively participate in parenting classes; and parent educator's perception of change in parent behavior as a result of participation in parenting classes. The parent educator's responses showed that culture in regards to ethnicity, behavior determined by belief systems, and personal upbringing, as well as men's feelings about the role of women seem to be the shared view around today's parenting issues. These findings suggest that parent educators feel that their parenting interventions have proven to be effective and each parent's understanding of what it means to be a parent differs depending upon many lifestyles, culture, and background. Finally, this descriptive study provides implications for social work practice which suggest that a preventive/interventive approach, such as mandated parenting classes should be utilized to reverse the problem of child abuse when dealing with every parent- child interaction case in family services. The prevention/ intervention method should be dealt with case by case to address specific conditions for each family. Furthermore, other researchers may want to explore the feelings and opinions of the parents who are required to or choose to voluntarily attend parenting classes using a pretest-posttest strategy for parents before they start the classes and after they successfully complete the classes. Exploring their feelings could reveal important information concerning the curriculum used for instructing parents on the various components that build a healthy parent-child relationship