Positive Parenting: Supporting the Family in Trouble

The Black Community in Montreal number about 152 195 at Census 2001.The English speaking Black Community represent about 60 000. The population is largely an immigrant population. The population in the age-group 15-34 represent 35% of the total Black population, and 48.8 percent of the population 15 years and over.  For the age group 15 – 24 18.6%.  of the total Black population, and 26%  of the Black population 15 years and over.  28.3% of the population is less than 15 years. At the 2006 Census, the Black Youth population 15-24 represented 22.7 percent of the Black population 15 years and over compared with 15.2 percent for the non-Black population.     Because of an early immigration policy that focused on the individual rather than the family there has been a tendency for single parent families to evolve as a dominant characteristic of the Black population. This is further reinforced by a social philosophy of Quebecer which tends to support a type of structure of unwed partnerships. It is not uncommon to encounter Black families in which the mother is the single parent and the principal bread winner.  Another characteristic is the fact that these parents are often in their teens and early twenties. The consequences of these unplanned single family units is a child or children born to dire economic circumstances, and a parent that lack the resources and skill of parenting. We see concentrations of these families in Cotes des Neiges, Little Burgundy, NDG, Montreal North, Park Extension, and parts of the inner core of the City. These are also areas where we see gangs operating and juvenile crime concentrated.   A common experience of the QBBE(Quebec Board of Black Educators) and other family service organization has been the despair that young mothers reveal when they are faced with children over whom they have no control and do not know how to regain or even exercise control. We frequently have to council parents who are themselves children with little control over their own impulses and emotions and certainly very low in parenting skills and  management of difficult behaviours in children. The QBBE believes that it is well placed to provide a community wide education in positive parenting while at the same time addressing the problems of those families that are in crisis.   The proposed positive parenting program is a multi-level preventatively oriented parenting and family support strategy. The program was developed in Australia at the University of Queensland,  Brisbone. Its  principal object is to prevent severe behavioural, emotional and developmental problems in children by enhancing the  knowledge , skills and confidence of parents. Consequently it is expected that it will also reduce the potential for criminality associated with the situation described above.   Rationale for the program. There are a number of factors which are widely cited  as responsible for putting the child at risk of academic failure and a life of crime. They can be summarized as follows: on the parent side of the equation, poor parenting and management of disruptive behaviours, poor supervision. On the child’s side,  lack of  self motivation and confidence, low self esteem and exposure to peers and adults that are involved in delinquent and criminal behaviour. There are many types of programs designed to address these problems under the general caption of “preventative”. Most government type programs tend to be more concerned with long term security issues the prevention of crime as oppose to the maximization of all the benefits to the individual and society from a life that does not fail or a life that reaches its full potential. In the program we are proposing we attempt to attain both objectives. In fact we do not see how one can be separated from the other.   Between October 2007 and April  2008, the Black Studies Center was mandated  by a  Committee of  Evaluation  established by the City of Montreal ( Direction de la diversité sociale) in collaboration with the Direction de L’Evaluation (MESS)  and the Quebec Board of Black Educators (QBBE) to evaluate a family support pilot program  carried out by the QBBE for Black Youth from English speaking Black families.   As a result of the study,  a restructured  program has been developed and recommended to the Board of Directors of the QBBE. The revised  proposed program focuses on the Family in trouble from the point of view that it is unable to provide an environment and or lack the skills and resources to develop the child to its fullest potential.  These families are  particularly at risk because of  their marginalized positions in Quebec society, further confounded by a child or children that manifest behaviours that are typically associated with crime and antisocial life styles. Parents provide  resources that are critical to the successful development of the child; and to its effective integration into society. Parents or an imprimer provides the social and emotional training for creating the warm empathetic and compassionate adult person; and parents provide the economic and physical security necessary for the safety, education and growth of the child.  We know that factors outside the home also play an important role in the development of the child and how as an adult it will respond to its social environments. But the process clearly begins at home and from birth. We are told by Golman and others that the human brain is designed to change itself  in response to accumulated experience; and that the child’s brain shapes itself to fit its social ecology, particularly the emotional climate fostered by the main people  in its life.: parents, siblings, grandparents, teachers and friends. The greatest growth of the child’s brain takes place in its first two years and apparently takes more than two decades to reach its full potential.  Therefore, it would seem logical that “crime prevention” should start at birth and that makes the parent the key to the problem. But this program is not about crime prevention. It is about the development of the human person. It is about giving the child the best chance for success in school and life. Our concerns are not about home land security and the politics of Federal-Provincial jurisdictions in education and their power struggles.   Our prevention programs are directed at the reduction of barriers to success and creating a social and emotional intelligence that builds the ingenuity of the individual. It  should start in the home before the child gets to school. The problem is if we are successful we would have no evidence to that effect. Fortunate for evidence based policy makers some families are already experiencing serious problems; and the research evidence shows Family life seems to be able to alter the activity of genes not just for aggression but for a vast number of other traits. But there is hope beyond those two years when government and community interventions may not be present or welcomed.   The neuroscience, and social psychology overwhelmingly underline the critical importance of the role that the family plays in the development of the child and in the ultimately creates society and a more humanized civilization. We know that family relations in general and the parent-child relations  in particular have a pervasive influence on the psychological, physical, social and economic wellbeing of children. The evidence is sufficiently convincing that  it is worth the while to train  parents in the skills  of parenting  and the management of  difficult adolescent behaviours and in so doing change the psycho-social environment and parent –child relationships  to create the opportunity for the child’s brain circuitry to adapt to a positive environment. Clearly this will require different strategies at different stages of the brain development of the child, and given the differences in the  social and experiential circumstances of  the child. We do not rule out a religious environments based on love, sharing, compassion, and empathy for all.     How the Positive Parenting Program addresses the problem described.   The Queensland Model   There are  five levels of  intervention which makes it possible for us to work with a parent that may be experiencing difficulties in the early stages of the development of the child through to adulthood and hopefully success; or to start with a parent that maybe experiencing difficulties at the adolescent stages of the child’s development. The program levels are tiered  and continuous as set out below: Level of Intervention Target Population Intervention Methods Practitioners Level 1 Media based parent Information Campaign All parent interested in information promoting their child’s development And academic success Remediation  plus Briefings on how to solve developmental and minor behaviour problems Family Program; Parent support volunteers; and professional services at schools, CLSCs, Batshaw   Level 2 Brief Selective Intervention Parents with specific Concerns about their children behaviour and academic performance Provision of remediation; Provision of specific advice for a discrete child problem behaviour Family program plus consultant in Educational psychology. Level 3 Narrow focus parenting training Parents  with children with academic problems and  other problems  that require active skills training of parent Brief therapy program Combining remediation for child, with rehearsal and self evaluation  to teach parents to manage a discrete child problem; telephone or face to face; or group sessions; plus remediation Family Community Education program; CLSC Child care; Leve 4 Broad Focus Parent Training Parent wanting intensive training in positive parenting skills and whose child is failing academically Provision of remediation and  Intensive program focusing on parent child interaction and the application of parenting skills to a broad range of target behaviours CLSC, Batshaw, Family  program Level 5 Behavioural Family intervention modules Parents with children with concurrent academic , Child behvioural and dysfunctional  family situation. Intensive individually tailored program with modules including home visits to enhance parenting skills; mood management strategies; and partner support skills. May involve telephone or face-to-face contact or group workshops. CLSCs; Batshaw, Family program      As one can see from the tabular representation above, a family or parent  can enter the program at any level or can move from one level to the other as problems are being resolved. Essentially the program can be said to target five different developmental periods: infants, toddlers, preschoolers, primary schoolers, and teenagers. The rationale is that there are different levels of dysfunction in children and behavioural disturbance in children, and parents have different needs and preferences regarding the type, intensity and mode of assistance they may require. This model maximizes efficiency by  means of better allocation of the specific resource to the particular need. It also addresses a broad range of needs in an interrelated fashion. This modular approach allows the QBBE Family Program to utilize resources in the community extensively and effectively and ensure the best professional service are brought to the solution of the problem. A detailed theoretical exposition of the model and instances of its application and successes is set out in a Parenting Research and Practice Monograph No. 1 MathewsR. S. , Carol Markie-Dadds, Karen, M.T.T “ Theoretical Scientific and Clinical Foundations of the Tripple P-Positive Parenting Program : a Population Approach to the Promotion of Parenting Competence”. Parenting and family Support Centre, the University of Queensland, Australia.   The QBBE has received funding from the City and MESS to support its  science and evidence based initiatives to address problems relating to parents with children in  the elementary and high school age group ( primarily the  age groups 7-11  and  12 -18 or over);  and whose problems are at the intensity levels of level 3, 4, and 5. That is to say parents having needs for training and skills development for children whose behaviours are socially unacceptable and already manifest in academic failure.  As stated earlier, problems would be addressed specific to their unique nature so that as much as feasible  we will take into consideration the level of the development of the child and the social location of the parent.   Duration of program 50 weeks   Personnel: The emphasis is on quality staffing.    There will be 4 tutors who are  trained to provide information and advice on core parenting skills relating to the organizing of the home for study and reading time ; and the use of basic core parenting strategies to teach discipline and self control. They will conduct telephone sessions and individual face-to-face contact sessions with parents. There will be a part time educational psychologist attached to the program who will deal with more clinical issues and referrals. The Executive Director, who haolds a degree in psychology from Concordia,  will be responsible for the direction and coordination of the program. There will be an administrative assistant to  the program director. Size of Program: Number of parents involved from Black and other visible minority immigrant communities 10 families. This may involve 20 children.   Advisors and Partners to the program:   Advisors:   There is a body of advisors who are professional teachers, educational administrators,   and community and social psychologists that are members of an advisory body that   Partners: Batshaw;  CLSC NDG; EMSB; BCRC (Black Community Resource Center); Ecole St Luc, CSDN;  and The Black Studies Center.   For more information on the program, contact the Executive Director of the QBBE at 514-481- 9400 or visit the Organization’s site at  http://www.qbbe.org