Parent Connectors - Impacts & Results (Original)

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Families and Schools Author

11/08/2019 Added

17 Plays

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Discover the results and impacts of Parent Connectors, a parent-to-parent support program for families with children in middle school receiving special education services for emotional and behavioral challenges. This research was conducted by SECD's Academy for Child and Family Well Being.

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[00:00:01.935](uplifting upbeat music)
[00:00:20.940]Our research goal of the Parent Connector study
[00:00:23.500]was to examine the effects
[00:00:25.380]of a parent-to-parent support intervention
[00:00:27.910]for kids with emotional and behavioral challenges.
[00:00:30.400]Our goal was to see if phone calls
[00:00:32.600]with other parents similar to them,
[00:00:34.650]also parents of kids with emotional behavior issues,
[00:00:36.970]could help these parents to connect to schools,
[00:00:39.540]to reach out to their teachers,
[00:00:41.060]and to better understand the mental health services
[00:00:43.140]available to their children.
[00:00:44.909](uplifting music)
[00:00:49.760]The Parent Connector study was focused on
[00:00:51.990]the caregivers of middle school students
[00:00:53.990]with emotional and behavioral challenges.
[00:00:56.300]We had 349 parents that were a part of the study.
[00:00:59.870]After they were recruited, we did some consent,
[00:01:03.130]and the collected some baseline data.
[00:01:05.030]And after that they were randomly assigned,
[00:01:06.920]either to services as usual in their school,
[00:01:09.270]or to the Parent Connectors Program.
[00:01:11.300]With the Parent Connectors Program
[00:01:12.910]they would receive a phone call each week
[00:01:14.800]where they were able to talk for about an hour
[00:01:16.620]with another parent, trained in Parent Connectors,
[00:01:18.910]who was just like them.
[00:01:20.120]They were the parent of a child
[00:01:21.100]with emotional behavioral challenges.
[00:01:23.347](uplifting music)
[00:01:27.790]The Parent Connector study took place from 2013
[00:01:31.090]and finished up data collection in the summer of 2019.
[00:01:34.140]It took place in cities in Eastern Nebraska,
[00:01:37.070]and Western Iowa, and surrounding suburbs and small towns.
[00:01:40.420]We included 13 different school districts
[00:01:42.930]as a part of this study.
[00:01:44.803](uplifting music)
[00:01:48.580]Parent Connectors is a relatively low-intensity
[00:01:50.810]and short duration intervention.
[00:01:52.500]Parents typically engage in about two to three phone calls
[00:01:55.710]per month which last about 30 to 60 minutes each time.
[00:02:00.070]We had about 75% of the families who engaged
[00:02:03.400]in at least 100 minutes of phone calls
[00:02:05.880]with their Parent Connector.
[00:02:07.420]Of the families who did engage at least 100 minutes
[00:02:10.440]with the Parent Connector,
[00:02:11.870]those families averaged about eight hours
[00:02:14.070]of phone calls over the course of a school year.
[00:02:16.330]Generally speaking,
[00:02:17.240]the families who were invited to participate
[00:02:19.210]in Parent Connector were really satisfied with the services,
[00:02:23.070]and 93% of the families said that
[00:02:25.280]they would recommend Parent Connectors to a friend.
[00:02:28.825](uplifting music)
[00:02:33.380]Our primary focus was what the caregivers
[00:02:35.740]and the Parent Connectors program could increase
[00:02:38.180]their knowledge of special education services,
[00:02:40.480]as well as improve their working relationships
[00:02:42.950]with teachers, as well as mental health service providers.
[00:02:45.800]There are many encouraging outcomes in these areas, such as,
[00:02:49.640]families in Parent Connectors
[00:02:50.930]were 63% more likely to feel that their comfort
[00:02:53.670]in talking with educators increased during the intervention.
[00:02:57.460]The families were 28% more likely to feel
[00:03:00.120]that their knowledge
[00:03:00.953]of special education services increased.
[00:03:04.110]They were 50% more likely to report an increase
[00:03:06.970]in their ability to influence the educational services
[00:03:09.450]that their child received.
[00:03:11.550]They were also 66% more likely to report
[00:03:14.420]an increase in their ability to influence
[00:03:16.230]the mental health services that their child received.
[00:03:19.790]All of those effects are statistically significant.
[00:03:22.560]We also looked at measures
[00:03:23.670]of parental involvement in education.
[00:03:26.370]We found no differences that post test on these measures,
[00:03:29.370]such as the parents perception
[00:03:31.330]of their role in their child's education,
[00:03:33.430]as well as the parents efficacy to directly influence
[00:03:36.700]how their child learns.
[00:03:38.470]This finding's really not that surprising,
[00:03:40.360]given that by middle school,
[00:03:41.540]parental role construction is pretty well established,
[00:03:44.300]however it might be much more variable
[00:03:46.480]for parents of younger students.
[00:03:49.350]We did find significant differences between the groups
[00:03:51.950]when looking at parental knowledge and skills,
[00:03:54.590]and these are things such as,
[00:03:56.130]parents understanding how to communicate with the school,
[00:03:58.980]understanding what happens during
[00:04:00.430]their child's typical school day,
[00:04:02.350]as well as ways to influence and direct homework behaviors.
[00:04:06.936](uplifting music)
[00:04:11.850]We also looked at other parent outcomes
[00:04:13.460]that were a bit more broad in scope,
[00:04:15.180]such as caregiver strain, caregiver empowerment,
[00:04:18.400]as well as advocacy for obtaining services
[00:04:20.900]for the emotional behavioral needs of their children.
[00:04:23.630]While we look for differences
[00:04:24.830]between the groups on these measures,
[00:04:26.406]it's not too surprising that we didn't find them,
[00:04:28.880]given the low level of intensity and duration
[00:04:31.380]of this intervention.
[00:04:33.165](uplifting music)
[00:04:37.810]We did look at student outcomes as well,
[00:04:40.300]including teacher and parent ratings of student behavior,
[00:04:43.440]as well as teacher ratings of academic competency.
[00:04:46.500]However, these are really long-term outcomes
[00:04:49.390]and are so dependent on a number of factors outside
[00:04:52.280]of the scope of this intervention
[00:04:53.900]that it's not surprising that we did not see differences
[00:04:56.430]between the groups on these measures.
[00:04:58.741](uplifting music)
[00:05:03.070]I think we were most surprised that we were able
[00:05:05.720]to have these types of gains working
[00:05:07.590]with older kids, middle school students
[00:05:10.080]that had been receiving special education services,
[00:05:12.260]often for three or four years.
[00:05:13.890]To be able to have these kinds of changes
[00:05:15.860]with these older kids is really encouraging
[00:05:18.890]for the field of parent support.
[00:05:21.008](uplifting music)
[00:05:25.270]It can be really hard for our Parent Connectors
[00:05:28.010]to be able to talk to other parents on the phone,
[00:05:30.250]to share their story
[00:05:31.340]and to help them to connect to services.
[00:05:33.540]So one of the key aspects we've learned from this study,
[00:05:36.520]is that's essential to offer weekly supervision
[00:05:39.990]from a licensed mental health professional
[00:05:42.240]for our Parents Connectors,
[00:05:43.720]so they can provide the best and most consistent services
[00:05:46.470]to our families as possible.
[00:05:48.584](uplifting music)
[00:05:54.290]We are gonna use this information
[00:05:55.791]to really develop online training for our Parent Connectors,
[00:05:59.940]ways for them to enter their weekly data logs online
[00:06:03.690]so that we can really monitor and support this
[00:06:05.660]as it starts to go across the state and country.
[00:06:08.289]Another thing that we learned from this study
[00:06:10.340]is that there is a really strong need
[00:06:12.240]to develop better measures of peer support
[00:06:14.900]that can detect change over time
[00:06:16.850]and be useful for Parent Connectors
[00:06:18.600]in similar interventions.
[00:06:20.060]Another thing that we learned from this study
[00:06:22.090]is that a lot of our families are interested
[00:06:24.290]in an option to text with their Parent Connector.
[00:06:27.240]While it's not something we were able to do for this study,
[00:06:29.980]it is definitely something we want to look at going forward
[00:06:32.750]so we can provide families more options
[00:06:35.180]with their busy lifestyles.
[00:06:37.337](uplifting music)
[00:06:40.469]In the future we really wanna focus on younger children.
[00:06:44.410]Parent Connectors was focused on middle school children
[00:06:46.440]where we think it will would be really helpful
[00:06:48.549]to reach elementary students,
[00:06:50.840]just as they're starting to be identified
[00:06:53.270]for special education services,
[00:06:55.017]and to reach their families then,
[00:06:56.980]to help them understand special education services,
[00:06:59.870]how to talk to their teachers,
[00:07:01.600]and understand the issues surrounding emotional
[00:07:03.217]and behavioral challenges.
[00:07:05.260]We also think that it would be really helpful
[00:07:07.890]to try this innovative program in a rural schools
[00:07:10.960]where parents may feel even more isolated
[00:07:13.440]than some of their urban counterparts.
[00:07:15.360]Being able to pick up a phone to be able to talk
[00:07:17.990]to another parent that's walked in their shoes
[00:07:20.270]could really make all the difference.
[00:07:23.224](uplifting music)
[00:07:25.260]We really wanna thank everyone that made
[00:07:27.060]the Parent Connector study possible.
[00:07:29.070]Especially the families that participated,
[00:07:31.380]the teachers in the school districts that were involved,
[00:07:34.420]all of the students at the university that participated
[00:07:37.080]and our staff.
[00:07:38.100]We would also like to thank
[00:07:39.480]the Department of Educations Institute of Education Sciences
[00:07:43.070]for it's support.
[00:07:44.699](uplifting music)

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Parent Connectors - Impacts & Results (Original)

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