PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

A positive parent-child interaction is believed to have a significant impact on a child's development and is broadly considered an important protective factor for raising healthy and resilient children. Promoting responsive and sensitive parental behavior is therefore the primary target of many family-based prevention programs, especially those focusing on attachment and family relationships. Several meta-analyses have showed desirable effects of these programs on parent-child interactions in high-risk samples. Recent research has identified the importance of kindergartens as a useful setting for primary prevention programs. This article reports on the development and initial evaluation of a training program to enhance the interaction between parents and their 24-36-month-old children in a kindergarten setting. The ultimate aim of the training is to promote the positive development of the children with a special emphasis on providing age-appropriate support for resolving developmental tasks targeted at this age. The focus is on the development of emotion regulation competencies, on language development, on autonomy development, on promotion of play competencies, and on fantasy development. To accomplish these goals, the program "Joko, you and I" was developed with eight sessions (game stations) provided in weekly intervals focusing on different developmental tasks across the sessions. An intervention-control group design (intervention group: n = 15; control group: n = 32) was used to evaluate this approach. The program was conducted by trained kindergarten teachers, who invited interested parents to join the program. The families from the control group did not receive this specific program. The pretest instruments included different questionnaires for the parents to assess the parental perception of child relationship behaviors, their parenting behavior, their handling of negative emotions of their children (e.g., anger), and their parental stress. Additionally, a standardized observation task according to the Dyadic Parent Child Interaction Coding System was conducted. At posttest, following the program, the same tests were again administered to both groups. Data analysis (analysis of variance) showed that primary caregivers of the intervention group reacted more favorably to negative child signals after the training. Moreover, they showed a reduced tendency to punish children and reported lower parental stress. Beyond these changes there were no further significant effects on the parent-child interaction. Although the sample sizes were small, the study provides initial indications of potential intervention effects that may support parents in improving their parent-child interactions. Moreover, the strategy of recruiting parents via trained kindergarten teachers tended to counteract the typical bias in prevention that mainly parents with higher educational backgrounds participate in prevention programs. Additional studies are needed to analyze the stability of the effects and to assess whether they contribute to the ultimate aim of promoting a positive development of children.