Preliminary evaluation of the Group Teen Triple P program for parents of teenagers making the transition to high school

Alan Ralph
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD

Matthew R Sanders
Parenting and Family Support Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD

PP: 169 - 178

Abstract

Group Teen Triple P is a brief group parenting program for parents of teenagers. It is based on the successful Triple P - Positive Parenting Program for parents of children aged from 0 to 12, with a focus on helping parents manage the transition from late childhood to early adolescence.

This paper describes the initial evaluation of a universal trial of the program offered to all parents of students entering their first year of high school at age 12 in a regional north Queensland school. Twenty-seven parents completed a battery of self-report questionnaires immediately before and after participating in the 8-week program. Participating parents reported significant reductions in conflict with their teenager, and on measures of laxness, over-reactivity, and disagreements with their partner over parenting issues. These are well-established parenting risk factors. In addition, parents reported significant improvements on measures of self-regulation, including self-efficacy, self-sufficiency, and self-management, and reductions on measures of depression, anxiety, and stress.

It was concluded that a preliminary evaluation of the Group Teen Triple P program achieved its goals of reducing targeted risk factors associated with the development of behavioural and emotional problems in teenagers. The paper concludes with an examination of issues around parent recruitment and engagement which are crucial for the successful provision of effective and timely advice and support for parents of teenagers.

Keywords

parenting, Triple P, family intervention, early adolescence

Article Text

The research literature in the area of child and adolescent behavioural and emotional problem behaviour now strongly supports refocusing a significant proportion of resources toward an early intervention/prevention model that provides parents with appropriate support and assistance during children's early years (Sanders, 1999). One question that follows is whether there is also a case for splitting this effort by separately targeting the period of early adolescence.

The Australian Temperament Project (ATP), a large scale, longitudinal study that has followed approximately 1600 Victorian children from infancy to 17-18 years of age, recently released data supporting two different pathways associated with the development of antisocial behaviour in adolescents (Vassallo, Smart, Sanson, Dussuyer, McKendry, Toumbourou, Prior & Oberklaid 2002). During adolescence, three groups were identified on the basis of self-reported involvement in antisocial behaviour. These groups were designated low/non antisocial, persistent, and experimental. The latter two groups follow similar trajectories to the early and late starter groups identified by Patterson (Patterson 1982; Patterson, Capaldi & Banks 1991) and others (McMahon & Estes 1997) to describe children whose problem behaviour becomes entrenched in the pre-school years, and those who do not exhibit problem behaviour in early childhood, but become part of a 'late starter' group, with problems emerging in early adolescence. Those in the ATP study who belonged to the persistent group began to exhibit antisocial behaviour at a significantly higher rate than the other two groups from the age of 5-6 years, with these differences increasing until the age of 11-12 when they began to plateau. Those in the experimental group did not begin to exhibit antisocial behaviour at a significantly higher rate than those in the low/non antisocial group until age 12-13, with these differences increasing until the age of 15-16, after which there was a slight downward trend. A similar, but not as extensive, downward trend was also observed for the persistent group when all participants were surveyed at age 17-18. However, as no data have yet been gathered beyond this age, it is not possible to tell whether these downward trends will continue into early adulthood. The authors concur with current thinking that there should be a focus on the early primary school years to prevent the development of persistent antisocial behaviour (the early starter pathway). However, they also go on to conclude that interventions targeting experimental antisocial behaviour should focus on the early secondary school years (the late starter pathway).

A recent survey of parents about their teenagers' behaviour revealed that issues around family conflict and management of emotions featured strongly and were identified as areas where parents wanted assistance (Ralph, Toumbourou, Grigg et al., 2003, this issue). Two recent studies have provided perhaps the clearest picture yet of the parenting constructs that should be targeted when developing early interventions to prevent severe adolescent problems. Metzler, Biglan, Ary and Li (1998), built on work by Dishion, Li, Spracklen et al., (1998) to investigate the association between six parenting constructs (positive family relations, parent-child conflict, parental rule-making, consistent enforcement of rules, positive reinforcement for desirable behaviour, and parental monitoring), and three adolescent criterion variables (association with deviant peers, antisocial behaviour, substance use). Results showed that parent-child conflict, positive family relations, and parental monitoring were most highly related to the criterion variables. Conflict with parents was strongly associated with contact with deviant peers, substance use, and engaging in antisocial behaviour. High levels of positive family relations, parental monitoring, rule setting, and positive reinforcement for appropriate behaviour were associated with less contact with deviant peers, less engagement in antisocial behaviour, and less substance use.

This paper reports the adaptation of the successful Triple P - Positive Parenting Program developed by Sanders and colleagues at the University of Queensland (Sanders & Markie-Dadds, 1992; Sanders, Markie-Dadds, Tully & Bor, 2000; Sanders & McFarland, 2000) to produce an early intervention program, known as Teen Triple P, for the late starter or experimental group. The intervention features specific strategies that are introduced to parents that aim to enhance the protective factors and reduce the risk factors identified above.

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