Paper
Changing directions for challenging children and their families
- issue: Issue 2 / 2008
- authors: Wendy Rose, Jane Aldgate
- keywords: United Kingdom
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abstract
Background. This paper presents the findings by the authors of a four year evaluation of a group of three innovative projects in Scotland set up to work with children aged 7 to 11 years whose behaviour was becoming increasingly challenging or antisocial (Aldgate et al 2007). It addresses a key conference theme exploring prevention and developing family support alternatives for troubled and troublesome children and youth.
Purpose. The projects were funded by the Scottish government under an important youth crime prevention programme and established by a leading children's charity in Scotland, Children 1st. The government initiative was aimed to find out whether a preventive rather than a punishment approach to dealing with children's anti-social behaviour could have a beneficial impact.
The projects were developed as accessible child and family friendly centre-based interventions, located in former shops in the heart of three areas of considerable need and deprivation. Strong relationships were developed by the project workers with key local agencies, such as schools and social work. The unique aspect of the projects was that the projects combined child and parenting programmes with family centre and community development approaches.
Many of the children had presented with challenging behaviour for some time, at home, in school and in the community. Some of the children had already exhibited a high degree of antisocial behaviour and were in trouble with the police, one nine year old having nearly twenty police cautions for vandalism and other incidents. Some parents felt they had lost control of their homes and of their families.
A structured programme approach was chosen for the groupwork, using primarily the Webster-Stratton Incredible Years parenting programme for children and parents (Webster-Stratton 2002). This programme has been positively and rigorously tested in the UK as well as the USA (for example, Webster-Stratton and Taylor 1998; Richardson and Joughin 2002; Utting et al 2007).
What marked out the Children 1st projects was the ability of the workers to keep the integrity of the structured programme but place it within a flexible context of other supporting work, which recognised the serious, multiple and long term needs of some of the children and families. This included careful preparation, individual support from a key worker, a nurturing environment, accommodation of adults with literacy and other difficulties, transport provided to the projects, crèches for small children, and adaptation of the programmes to suit the pace, experience, age and development of children and their parents. It also included some family based holiday programmes, involving families in having fun and enjoying each other. In time, the age criterion for referral of children to the projects was lowered to include five and six year olds to allow earlier intervention, and the programmes offered were modified to be suitable for both younger and older children.
A developmental approach to evaluation was adopted that included a mixture of evaluation strategies. In recognition of the challenge of evaluating complex family support projects, a broad definition of evidence was taken and an iterative approach that allowed for assessment of the development of the projects over time. Standardised measures of difference before and after the specific interventions were used: the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman 1997) and the Parenting Daily Hassles Scale (Crnic and Greenberg 1990). A range of qualitative measures were also used including self-evaluations by children and parents, researcher conducted focus groups with the parents and participant observation. The results have been very promising on a range of measures and the programmes have been rated positively by children, parents and schools. The response from parents suggested that many had experienced important turning points in their relationship with their children. Schools identified children as improving on a number of measures including school attendance, relationships with peers and achievement in school.
The paper identifies features which have contributed to the effectiveness of the projects as well as briefly exploring some of the lessons learned from the experiences of children, families and staff that have more general applicability. It concludes that a targeted family support service, providing early intervention, using well-evidenced programmes, located with a multi-agency arena and working with individual communities may well be one of the most effective ways of helping young vulnerable children who are exhibiting challenging behaviour and their families.
Key references
Aldgate, J., Rose, W. & McIntosh, M. (2007). Changing Directions for Children with Challenging Behaviour and their Families: Evaluation of CHILDREN 1ST Directions Projects. Edinburgh: CHILDREN 1ST.
Crnic, K.A. & Greenberg, M.T. (1990). Minor parenting stresses with young children. Child Development, 61, 1628-1637.
Goodman, R. (1997). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(5), 581-586.
Richardson, J. & Joughin, C. (2002). Parent Training Programmes for the Management of Young Children with Conduct Disorders: Findings from Research. London: Gaskill.
Utting, D., Monteiro, H. & Ghate, D. (2007). Interventions for children at risk of developing antisocial personality disorder. Report to the Department of Health and Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. London: Policy Research Bureau.
Webster-Stratton, C. (1992). The Incredible Years. A Trouble-Shooting Guide for Parents of Children Aged 3-8. Toronto: Umbrella Press.
Webster-Stratton, C. & Taylor, T.K. (1998). Adopting and Implementing Empirically Supported Interventions: A Recipe for Success. In A. Buchanan and B.L. Hudson (Eds), Parenting, Schooling and Children's Behaviour (pp.127-160). Aldershot: Ashgate.
Contacts: Wendy Rose, Senior Research Fellow, The Open University, Faculty of Health and Social Care, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, United Kingdom, E-mail: w.e.rose@open.ac.uk, Phone 07711 672116.