CULTURALLY SENSITIVE PARENT EDUCATION - A CRITICAL-REVIEW OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

The recant growth of culturally sensitive parent education programs ne cessitates an evaluative look at their effectiveness. This article cri tically reviews the quantitative literature OR culturally sensitive pa rent education programs, discussing issues of research methodology and program efficacy inproducing change among ethnic-minority parents and their children. Culturally sensitive programs for American American a nd Hispanic families ape described in detail. Quantitative studies of culturally sensitive programs ape critiqued against existing literatur e on the effectiveness of traditional parent education programs. Main conclusions include the prevalence of flaws in research methodology, w hich may contribute to the finding of somewhat lower efficacy of these programs in comparison to standard programs. Although efficacy studie s of programs for Native American and Asian American parents could not be found, efforts to serve these populations are also described. Reco mmendations for future research are proposed.