Training for Mixed-Ethnicity Parents for Children Involvement in Cultures - Research Paper Example

The parents may end up giving the child mixed messages, and the child may be required to make choices and negotiate situations he/she is too young to deal with. Parental training workshops have seen reasonable success in helping parents understand the needs of their children and respond to them effectively (Barth et al., 2005; Lundahl, Risser & Lovejoy, 2006). On this basis, it is postulated that parents who attend training in introducing multiple cultures to a child are likely to be able to communicate cultural concepts in a better and less conflicting manner. It is believed that they would also be able to help the child accept the importance and values of both cultures and emphasize the positives of each.

Thus, on the basis of this reasoning, the following research question may be proposed: ‘Parents who attend a training program designed to help parents introduce and explain a mixed culture background to children in the age group of 3 – 7 years will experience a significant improvement in the way they interact with their child/children about culture-related issues.’

This research question may be studied using both quantitative as well as qualitative measures. Quantitative measures will provide us with objective numerical measurement of the reduction on problematic communication, and increased inappropriate communication that the parents have with the child/children; whereas qualitative data will provide details of the ways in which parent-child interactions have changed; as well as the secondary benefits that may have been gleaned from the training.

Variables Measured
The study will attempt to measure two variables related to parent-child interaction.
• Type and extent of conflicted / problematic communication of cultural concepts by the parent.
• Type and extent of appropriate communication of cultural concepts by the parent.

Although these variables do seem related to each other; they do manifest distinctly in parental interactions with children; it is has been deemed important that they are studied separately in order to reduce the chance of confounding.

Quantitative analysis
In order to quantitatively measure and analyze any changes in the parent-child interaction; separate checklists of appropriate and inappropriate statements/behaviors are constructed, and each statement is measured on a 5 – point rating scale that verifies the frequency with which that statement/behavior occurs in front of the child. The parent fills in the two checklists for appropriate and for inappropriate statements/behaviors, and a final score for each checklist is derived by adding the scores on each item on the checklist.

The scores thus collected may be used to evaluate the changes – if any – in the parents’ self-report of interactions with the child. The participant parent is asked to fill out the checklists before starting the training, and then again sometime after the training has been completed. The difference in the scores will help us identify the direction and intensity of changes that occur due to training.

This research design is a quasi-experimental design; which uses a before-after design. The design is quasi-experimental, as participants for the training program cannot be randomly selected from the population; but on the basis of who registers for the training program and agrees to participate in the study. The data collected from this study can be analyzed using inferential statistics – namely the t-test. The t-test will be conducted on the scores of each checklist separately; and if significant, the t-test values will help us understand the difference in the behaviors of the parents before and after training.

Qualitative analysis
The topic being studied cannot be limited to numerical scores, as understanding the experiences of the participating parents and in consequence, those of the children is vital to verify the effectiveness of the training program. To this end, the research question may be studied using qualitative analyses as well.
A semi-structured interview may be used to probe for the
• Relevant statements and behaviors before training
• Relevant statements and behaviors after training
• Change experienced by the participating parent
• Change in the child observed by the parent.

The data thus collected should be observed for relevant themes and should be coded to compare the before and after conditions as well as the changes experienced and observed by the parents that would be indicative of the success of the training. Read More