The effects of a child-parent relationship therapy based psycho-education program on children and parents in single-parent families

Abstract

Single-parent families, one of the common family structures in society, experience some challenges as well as advantages. One way to deal with these challenges is to strengthen the child-parent relationship. The aim of this study was to reduce problematic behaviors in single-parent children and increase parental empathy and acceptance levels of their parents by implementing a psycho-education program based on Child-Parent Relationship Therapy. The study employed a pre-test-post-test control group experimental design with random assignments. The sample consisted of 6 parents in the experimental group and 6 parents in the control group. While the psycho-educational program was applied to the experimental group, no intervention was applied to the control group. A follow-up test was conducted with the experimental group after three months. The findings showed significant increases in parental acceptance (Z = -2.201, p = .028) and parental empathy (Z = -2.214, p = .027) in the experimental group. Significant improvements were also observed in four dimensions of children's problematic behaviors (Zs = -2.207 to -2.023, ps = .027-.043), whereas the total children's problematic behaviors score did not change significantly (Z = -1.153, p = .249). In the control group, the total children's problematic behaviors score increased significantly (Z = -2.023, p = .043), whereas no statistically significant change was observed in parental acceptance (Z = -1.483, p = .138). The present study has provided evidence that the psycho-education program may be effective with Turkish single-parent families. This study suggests that interventions based on child-parent relationships can benefit single parents and their children.