Parenting Through Divorce: Low-Cost, Innovative Training

描述(申请人提供)：离婚是一个严重的公共卫生问题。超过50%的婚姻以离婚告终，这会产生家庭压力，导致儿童适应不良。有证据表明，为父母提供高质量的离婚父母教育可以减轻对孩子的负面影响。尽管父母在保护孩子方面起着关键作用，但许多人对这项任务准备不足。可供选择的离婚父母教育项目不足。近60%的人在一次小组会议上进行，几乎没有机会发展持久的技能。此外，压力过大的离婚父母在参加集体培训方面面临着巨大的障碍。目前的大多数项目都没有针对已知的缓冲离婚负面影响的变量，而且许多项目对父亲来说是无法获得的。有必要为离婚的父母提供可获得的、基于技能的理论上合理的培训。 自学育儿计划为离婚的父母提供了一个很有前途的选择。他们克服了参加育儿小组的障碍，并在提高父母的知识、效率和技能方面表现出了良好的效果。然而，人们很少注意到低成本、自我管理、互动的多媒体方法对离婚父母的潜在价值。该项目的中心目标是开发和评估一个独特的创新方案，以满足离婚过渡期间父母的需要。如果目标实现，该计划将提供韧性资源，以支持已知的父母因素，以缓解风险因素对儿童结局的影响，从而满足重大的公共卫生需求。该计划将是一个自学、菜单驱动的在线课程，包含八节由媒体主导的课程，带有引人入胜的、现实的小插曲；自我反思、目标设定和技能培养的练习；以及一个管理的网络社区，供家长分享信息和经验，并访问万维网上的资源链接。 在第一阶段，我们开发了第一个项目，并建立了一个网络社区房间，收集了离婚父母、与他们共事的专业人士以及我们的项目顾问的意见。我们通过对父母进行一项试点研究来评估该计划的可行性，并通过一个专门从事离婚父母教育领域的专业顾问小组来确定该计划的可接受性。评估的结果是令人鼓舞的：父母报告说，从学习前到学习后，冲突明显减少，我们发现，父母使用新学技能的效能感和使用这些技能的行为意图显着增加。此外，来自家长和专业人士的社会效度数据表明，参与者认为网站易于访问和导航，网站内容有用且易于理解，他们表示能够高效地完成任务。 我们建议在第二阶段扩大和评估该计划，并对318名离异父母进行一项基于理论的干预的实验性随机试验。项目叙事 离婚是一个严重的公共卫生问题。超过50%的婚姻以离婚告终，这会产生家庭压力，导致儿童适应不良。该项目解决了专家的共识，即需要为离婚的父母提供可获得的、理论上合理的、以技能为基础的培训。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Divorce is a serious public health problem. Over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, generating family stressors that contribute to maladaptive child adjustment. The evidence is clear that providing parents with quality divorce parent education can mitigate the negative effects on children. Despite parents' key role in protecting children, many are ill-prepared for the task. Available divorce parent education programs are insufficient. Nearly 60 percent take place in one group session, leaving little opportunity for the development of lasting skills. Moreover, stressed divorcing parents face substantial barriers to attending group-based training. Most current programs do not target the variables known to buffer the negative effects of divorce and many are inaccessible to fathers. There is a need for accessible, skill-based theoretically sound, training for divorcing mothers and fathers. Self-instructional parenting programs offer a promising alternative for divorcing parents. They overcome barriers to attendance at parenting groups, and have shown promising effects in increasing parents' knowledge, efficacy, and skills. Little attention has been paid, however, to the potential value of low-cost, self-administered, interactive multimedia approaches for divorcing parents. The central aim of this project is to develop and evaluate an innovative program uniquely tailored to meet the needs of mothers and fathers during the divorce transition. If the aims are achieved, the program will provide a resilience resource to bolster parental factors known to moderate the effects of risk factors on child outcomes, thus filling a significant public health need. The program will be a self-instructional, menu-driven, online curriculum containing eight media-led lessons with engaging, realistic vignettes; exercises for self-reflection, goal-setting, and skill-building; and a managed web community for parents to share information and experiences, and access links to resources on the World Wide Web. In Phase I, we developed the first program and set up a web community room with input from divorcing mothers and fathers, the professionals who work with them, and our program consultants. We evaluated feasibility of the program by conducting a pilot study with mothers and fathers, and established the acceptability of the program with an advisory panel of professionals who specialize in the field of divorce parent education. The results of the evaluation were encouraging: parents reported significantly less conflict from pre to post and we found a significant increase in parents' sense of efficacy in using their newly learned skills and in their behavioral intentions to use them. Moreover, social validity data from parents and professionals indicate that participants found the website easy to access and navigate, the web content useful and easy to understand, and they expressed that they were able to complete tasks efficiently. We propose to expand and evaluate the program in Phase II and to conduct an experimental randomized trial of the theory-based intervention with 318 divorcing parents. PROJECT NARRATIVE Divorce is a serious public health problem. Over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, generating family stressors that contribute to maladaptive child adjustment. This project addresses expert consensus that there is a need for accessible, theoretically sound, skill-based training for divorcing mothers and fathers.