Accentuating the Positive to Prevent the Negative Capacity-Building Child Maltreatment Prevention

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Accentuating the Positive to Prevent the
Negative Capacity-Building Child Maltreatment
Prevention

• Carol M. Trivette, Ph.D.
• Carl J. Dunst, Ph.D.
• Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute
• Morganton and Asheville, NC

Presentation made at the 17th National Conference
on Child Abuse and Neglect Atlanta, Georgia,
April 1, 2009
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Purpose of Presentation

• Describe Capacity-Building Model
• Review of Capacity-Building Studies
• Identify and Highlight the Key Characteristics of
  Capacity-Building Practices

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Paradigms and Intervention Models
Capacity-Building Paradigm Corrective Paradigm
Promotion Model Treatment Model
Empowerment Model Expertise Model
Strengths-Based Model Deficit-Based Model
Resource-Based Model Service-Based Model
Family Centered Model Professionally Centered Model
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Characteristics of the Capacity-Building Paradigm
Models Characteristics
Promotion Focus on enhancement and optimization of competence and positive functioning
Empowerment Create opportunities for people to use existing capabilities as well as develop new competencies
Strengths-Based Recognize peoples abilities and interests, and help them use their capabilities to strengthen functioning
Resource-Based Define practices in terms of a broad range of experiences and opportunities afforded by different people, programs, and organizations
Family-Centered Emphasize the pivotal role families play in decisions about those resources and supports needed to improve life circumstances
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Figure 1. Operational components for implementing
the parenting practices that strengthen the
parent/child relationship.
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Strengths-Based and Child Maltreatment Studies

• Project ASSIST
• Project KEEPSAFE
• Child Neglect Study
• Project PAL
• Project ABLE

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• Project ASSIST
• Purpose
• Applied research project designed to prevent
  child maltreatment among teenage mothers (Dunst
  et al., 1989, Dunst, 1989, Cooper et al., 1990).

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• Project ASSIST
• Project Component 1
• Teenage mothers did a work study program in
  preschool classrooms designed to provide them
  opportunities to observe and learn positive
  parenting behaviors.

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• Project ASSIST
• Project Component 2
• A needs-based social support intervention
  assigned to promote teenage mothers procurement
  of social supports and resources to meet needs.

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• Project ASSIST
• Project Component 3
• Parenting classes that addressed teenage mothers
  concerns about child-rearing.

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• Project ASSIST
• Premise of the Work-Study Component
• Poor parenting was not simply a function of being
  a teenage mother but the lack of opportunity to
  have good role models.

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• Project ASSIST
• Results of Work-Study Component
• Independent observations of mothers interacting
  with their children found that often just with 12
  to 15 two-hour, twice a week work-study sessions,
  teenage mothers increased their use of positive
  parenting behavior and decreased the use of
  negative parenting behavior.

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• Project ASSIST
• Premise of Social Support Interventions
• Guided by family systems model (Dunst, Trivette
  Deal, 1988) and focused on teen mothers
  identification of their needs and the needs of
  their children.
• Teens acquiring the skills needed to obtain
  supports and resources.
• Staff use of empowering helpgiving practices to
  support and strengthen teenage mothers
  capacities.

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• Project ASSIST
• Results of Social Support Intervention
• Major improvements in teenage mothers
  self-efficacy about their abilities to obtain
  needed resources and adult life outcomes
  (enrolling in college, finding a job, etc.).

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• Project KEEPSAFE
• Purpose
• To prevent child maltreatment where childrens
  challenging behavior precipitated episodes of
  poor parent/child interactions (Trivette Dunst,
  1987).

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• Project KEEPSAFE
• Premise
• Children with disabilities often manifest
  challenging behavior that parents find
  frustrating and irritating, and this serves as an
  impetus for poor parenting.

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• Project KEEPSAFE
• Intervention Group
• Parents were provided supports to acquire skills
  that emphasized positive child behavior.

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• Project KEEPSAFE
• Results
• Parents in the skill-based group increased
  positive interactions with their children by
  recognizing and responding to positive child
  behavior characteristics, whereas parents in the
  other group showed no changes in their parenting
  styles.

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Child Neglect Study

• 650 pregnant women followed longitudinally from
  2nd trimester until their children were 2 years
  of age.
• Child Well-Being Scales assessed presence of
  different types of neglect along a continuum from
  neglect to extreme neglect.

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• Child Neglect Study
• Results
• Lack of needed supports and resources taken at
  all measurement occasions was most strongly
  related to neglect, and that lack of supports and
  resources had negative effects on personal
  well-being and other personal functioning
  measures (e.g., self-efficacy beliefs) (Trivette,
  Dunst, Hamby, 1996).

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• Project PAL
• Purpose
• To strengthen parents judgments about their
  parenting capabilities as a way of improving
  parent-child interactions and decreasing the
  likelihood of maltreatment episodes (Dunst, 2001,
  2008 Dunst, Bennis, Durant, Shivers, 1999).

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Project PAL

• Parents were administered a strengths inventory
  and their personal interests and abilities were
  used to provide their children and other children
  in their neighborhoods different kinds of
  learning opportunities. The project was
  implemented in four neighborhoods in Asheville,
  NC judged to be at highest risk for a variety of
  poor outcomes (United Way of Asheville and
  Buncombe County, 1994a, 1994b).

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Project PAL

• Results
• Results showed differences favoring the
  intervention group participants on all outcome
  measures. Display of more positive and less
  negative behavior was found among the
  participants whose strengths were used as
  contexts for young childrens learning
  opportunities.

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Project ABLE

• Purpose
• Purpose of the project was to develop, implement,
  and evaluate methods and procedures for using
  parents strengths (interests and abilities) as
  sources of young childrens everyday, natural
  learning opportunities.

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Project ABLE

• Participants
• Participants were parents (mostly mothers) from
  different cultural and ethnic backgrounds (Asian,
  African-American, American Indian, Caucasian,
  Middle Eastern, Latino, Pacific Islander, etc.).

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Project ABLE

• Intervention
• Participants completed a strengths instrument
  that included more than 50 interests and
  abilities identified through a national survey of
  adult strengths.
• Participants indicated, for each of the scale
  items, which things they liked to do and enjoyed
  doing (interests) and what things they were good
  at doing (abilities).
• Participants were then asked to indicate for both
  their interests and abilities, which things their
  children might enjoy doing and which activities
  they wanted to do with their children.
• Parents then selected 6 to 8 activities that they
  began to routinely do with their children
  throughout the week.

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Project ABLE

• Staff worked with parents for 20 weeks
• Reviewed which activities worked for parent and
  child
• Added or deleted activities
• Intervention purposely simple

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Project ABLE

• Results
• Preliminary results indicate that the
  intervention group participants (compared to the
  control group participants) (1) Identified
  themselves as having more strengths at the end of
  the intervention, (2) engaged in more
  strengths-based interactions with their children,
  (3) reported more positive interactions with
  their children, (4) the children displayed more
  positive child behavior, and (5) the children
  demonstrated greater developmental progress over
  time (Dunst, Masiello et al., 2009a).

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• How Matters As Much As What
• The ways in which interventions are
  conceptualized matter a great deal in terms of
  the practices that are used to affect changes in
  parent, family, and child behavior and
  functioning.
• The ways in which practitioners intervene and
  interact with families also matter a great deal
  if participants optimally benefit from the
  interventions.

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• Lessons Learned
• People responded more favorably to interventions
  that emphasized the good things people do rather
  than just the correction of poor functioning.
• The more the interventions fit with the ways
  people typically and routinely go about
  everyday life, the higher the probability that
  the intervention practices would be used and
  implemented.

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• References
• Dunst, C. J. (2001). Parent and community assets
  as sources of young children's learning
  opportunities. Asheville, NC Winterberry Press.
• Dunst, C. J. (1989, January). Accessing social
  support and intervention services by teenage
  mothers (Project ASSIST) Final report.
  Asheville, NC Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute.
• Dunst, C. J. (2001). Parent and community assets
  as sources of young children's learning
  opportunities. Asheville, NC Winterberry Press.
• Dunst, C. J., Bennis, L. A., Durant, V.,
  Shivers, S. (1999, August). Project PAL Parents
  accessing learning opportunities for their young
  children. Second year progress report. Asheville,
  NC Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute.
• Dunst, C. J., Trivette, C. M., Deal, A. (1988).
  Enabling and empowering families Principles and
  guidelines for practice. Cambridge, MA Brookline
  Books.
• Dunst, C. J., Vance, S., Hamby, D. W. (1989).
  Supporting and strengthening pregnant teenagers
  and adolescent mothers Principles, strategies
  and outcomes. Family Systems Intervention
  Monograph Series, 1(2).
• Trivette, C. M., Dunst, C. J. (1987). Proactive
  influences of social support in families of
  handicapped children. In H. G. Lingren, L.
  Kimmons, P. Lee, G. Rowe, L. Rottmann, L. Schwab,
  R. Williams (Eds.), Family strengths Vol. 8-9.
  Pathways to well-being (pp. 391-405). Lincoln
  University of Nebraska, Center for Family
  Strengths.
• Trivette, C. M., Dunst, C. J., Hamby, D. W.
  (1996). Social support and coping in families of
  children at risk for developmental disabilities.
  In M. Brambring, H. Rauh, A. Beelmann (Eds.),
  Early childhood intervention Theory, evaluation
  and practice (pp. 234-264). Berlin, Germany de
  Gruyter.
• United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County.
  (1994). Challenges in Buncombe County The 1994
  needs assessment report. Asheville, NC Author.
• United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County.
  (1994). A closer look . . . at risk communities.
  Asheville, NC Author.

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• Carol M. Trivette, Ph.D.
• Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute
• 128 S. Sterling Street
• Morganton, NC 28655
• 828/432-0065 (p)
• 828/432-0068 (f)
• Email trivette_at_puckett.org

Website www.puckett.org
Website www.wbpress.com