THE EFFICACY OF PARENT TRAINING FOR PROMOTING POSITIVE PARENT TODDLERRELATIONSHIPS

The effectiveness of a parent training program for promoting positive parent-child relationships was examined among families of 2-year-olds. Forty-six mothers and fathers and their toddlers were assigned to eit her an intervention or comparison group. Intervention group parents pa rticipated in a 10-week program that focused on principles for effecti vely interacting with their toddlers. Parents completed measures of pa renting self-efficacy, depression, stress, and perceptions of their to ddler's behaviors and were videotaped playing with their toddlers prei ntervention, postintervention, and 3 months following the intervention . Repeated measures ANOVAs showed that the parent training program led to significant increases in maternal self-efficacy, decreases in mate rnal stress, and improvements in the quality of mother-toddler interac tions. No significant effects were found among fathers. Explanations f or obtaining different outcomes for mothers and fathers are discussed and directions for future research are recommended. (C) 1995 John Wile y & Sons, Inc.