A new study shows that parent training programmes fail to reduce
behavioural problems in toddlers, suggesting that coaching on how
to rear children may be a waste of time and money.
Toddlers play in a playground. A new study shows that parent
training programmes fail to reduce behavioural problems in
toddlers, suggesting that coaching on how to rear children may be a
waste of time and money. [Agencies]?
On average, behavioural problems afflict every seventh child
aged 4 to 17, previously studies have shown.
Aggressive or extremely defiant youngsters are said to have
externalised problems, while those of kids who withdraw, or suffer
anxiety and depression, are described as internalised.
Troubles in childhood often have serious personal, social and
economic consequences later in life, experts say.
Left untreated, approximately 50 percent of preschoolers with
behaviour problems develop mental health problems, including
depression.
Besides the direct cost of treatment, there are social costs as
well: unemployment, family stress or violence, drug use and
increased crime have all been linked to behavioural difficulties
very early in life.
One approach is to deal with the problems as they emerge through
counselling, drug treatment, or psychiatry. But this is expensive,
and not always effective.
Another tack is to try to nip the problems in the bud by
discouraging the kind of parenting that can lead to troubled
behaviour, such as unduly harsh discipline and unrealistic
expectations.
For the study, published in the British Medical Journal,
researchers enrolled 300 mothers and their eight-month old tots in
the Melbourne area into the training programme.
Unlike earlier studies, this one looked not just at high risk
families, but a representative sampling of parents and children
from poor, middle income and wealthier families.
The scientists, led by Harriet Hiscock at the Centre for
Community Child Health in Parkville, Australia, compared behaviour
of the test group over an 18 month period with another set of
mothers and kids who did not receive any special counselling.
The results showed very little difference between the two
groups.
Mothers in the programme were somewhat less abusive and acquired
more realistic expectations of how quickly their children would
progress.
But there was no significant difference is the level of
behaviour problems in the children, or in the mental health of the
mothers.
"The outcome at two years are insufficient to support widespread
introduction of a very early universal programme to prevent
behavioural problems in toddlers," the researchers conclude.
(Agencies via China Daily February 2,
2008)
