Chapter Two: Literature Review
Parenting Education
Today's students are tomorrow's
parents and leaders. It is logical that teaching effective parenting skills
to adolescents will increase their likelihood of parenting effectively.
A study by Mensah, Schultz, and Hughes (1983) assessed the parent education
needs of secondary students and concluded that secondary students would
benefit from being taught and want to learn about the developmentally appropriate
parenting skills which they will need as future parents. It is also hypothesized
that a realistic picture of the responsibilities and critical importance
of parenting behavior on the development of emotionally healthy children
would have a corrective effect on student decision making with regards
to becoming teenage parents. Parker and Forest (1993) cite classes on parenting
for today's and tomorrow's parents as essential to the prevention of attachment
disorders.
Academic programs that
teach about parenting have recently focused primarily on teenage parents
as the focal audience. This is a clear need, but the need to teach effective
parenting has perhaps been lost in the rush to deal with the teen parenting
crisis. A shift towards teaching all youth about effective parenting is
needed in order to help prevent the damage to the mental health of young
children that results from poor parenting. Such primary prevention is underway
in the Houston area. In a program and curriculum designed by Janet Pozmantier
of Houston Advocates for Mental Health In Children (1992) students are
learning about parenting styles and parenting choices. The primary and
secondary level curricula, which have been implemented with over 9,000
students in the Houston area, have been shown to be effective at teaching
the effects which parenting practices have on children's mental health.
The secondary level curriculum stresses the importance of positive discipline
in contrast to corporal punishment. Concepts such as the sucking need of
babies are introduced and many of the sessions focus on encouraging students
to empathize with the baby's needs and on the value of parenting in a democratic-style,
rather than a permissive or authoritarian fashion. Another fine example
of a parenting curriculum is one put together by Birckmayer, Mabb, Westendorf,
and Wilson (1996) of Cornell University's Cooperative Extension. This curriculum
is designed for use with pregnant and parenting students. It is a very
practical program with lessons on child development, seeking help, organization,
and various aspects of child care for babies and toddlers. There are also
"red flag" lessons in each section of the curriculum which are key lessons
that the authors advise be presented first should the program require editing.
Both of these curricula are excellent and worthy to be used as widely as
possible in our country, but neither pays any special attention to the
concept of attachment or any of the unique attachment parenting behaviors
which have been discussed in this thesis.
© 2001 Tami E.
Breazeale
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