Programe for parents of preschoolers getting results

Nov. 29, 2013 — The results indicated that completion of the HOPE-20 program generated significant improvement in the children's mastery of preschool concepts and language skills, reduced the children's behavior problems, lowered the stress of their parents, and fostered the parents' sense of competence.

With sponsorship of Lo Ying Shek Chi Wai Foundation, the Department of Applied Social Sciences of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), and the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) have developed the HOPE-20 training program for parents of two-year-old children. This is one of the first locally-developed evidence-based parent education programs for such young children.

The study titled "The efficacy of the HOPE-20 program for parents of 2-year-old children" was jointly completed by Professor Cynthia Leung, Department of Applied Social Sciences, PolyU, and Dr Sandra Tsang JP, Associate Professor, Department of Social Work and Social Administration, HKU. The study evaluated the efficacy of the HOPE-20 program for parents of 2-year-old children, using a randomized controlled trial design. The results indicated that completion of the HOPE-20 program generated significant improvement in the children's mastery of preschool concepts and language skills, reduced the children's behavior problems, lowered the stress of their parents, and fostered the parents' sense of competence.

HOPE-20 is a parent education program conducted through 20 two-hour group sessions designed for parents of two-year-old children. The content included strategies to enhance parent-child relationship, promote child learning and language, and strategies to increase positive behavior and manage inappropriate behavior. Each session consisted of mini-lectures, discussion, and role play. Parents must complete five-minute daily activities with their children between sessions. The program was delivered by trained social workers in nursery schools.

The program was locally developed and fine-tuned after a pilot test. A randomized controlled trial was then conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the program. A total of 173 parents of two-year-old children from 18 nursery schools participated in the study and were randomly assigned into the intervention group, or the wait-list control group, which received the intervention only after the comparison study was completed. The intervention group included 110 participants from 10 nursery schools. At post-intervention, it was found that the children of the intervention group participants showed significant improvements in their mastery of preschool concepts and language skills. The intervention group participants reported fewer child behavior problems, lower parental stress and higher parenting sense of competence.

Professor Cynthia Leung says, "The results indicated that HOPE-20 was an effective universal parent training program, bringing benefits to both the parents and their children." Dr Sandra Tsang adds, "Though we ask parents to spend more time with their children, they do not necessarily know how to interact with their children. The HOPE-20 program provides a concrete and practical set of activities."

With policy support and close collaboration with social services centers, the team hopes nursery schools territory-wide will adopt this program to enhance the development of young children and the competence of their parents.

Sponsored by the Lo Ying Shek Chi Wai Foundation, the HOPE-20 project team is offering three training workshops for practitioners in the field, including psychologists, health professionals, social workers, and early childhood educators. Upon completion of the compulsory sessions, participants will be eligible to collect the program manual and relevant materials and deliver the HOPE-20 program in their work settings.

Dr Lo Ka Shui, Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Foundation, says, "Although the design of this parental training program may have just ended, this is only the beginning of a long endeavor. We hope NGOs and district groups will continue to refine the parental training program and proactively incorporate parental training into their services. At the same time, we are advocating for the Government to increase its investment in this area, so as to make parental training a core component of early childhood development and facilitate the introduction of parental training to all nurseries in Hong Kong."

Ms Christine Fang BBS JP, Chief Executive of The Hong Kong Council of Social Service, adds, "Early intervention is the key to resolving many family issues. The HOPE-20 program provides an opportunity for social workers to get in closer touch with parents of young children and help them develop healthy parenting habits and attitudes."

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Why parents think your partner isn't good enough

Sep. 18, 2013 — It is common for parents to influence mate choice -- from arranged marriages to more subtle forms of persuasion -- but they often disagree with their children about what makes a suitable partner. A new study has found an evolutionary explanation for why some parents try to control who their children pair up with.

The study, involving a University of Bristol researcher and published today in the journal Evolution & Human Behavior, shows that this conflict over mate choice may be rooted in an evolutionary conflict over resources.

Dr Tim Fawcett, a research fellow in Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, teamed up with scientists at the University of Groningen to investigate how the mate preferences of parents and children co-evolve. They found that parents tend to give more resources to children whose partners provide less support, and that this leads to a conflict over mate choice.

The team built a computer model to simulate the evolution of parental behaviour when their daughter is searching for a partner. The model shows that, typically, parents should prefer a son-in-law who is more caring and supportive than their daughter would otherwise choose.

Dr Fawcett said: "The conflict over parental resources is central to understanding why parents and children disagree in mate choice."

The model predicts that, when parents distribute resources equally among their children, their mate preferences should coincide exactly. But when parents contribute more to children whose partners invest less, a conflict arises.

Dr Fawcett explained: "Parents are equally related to all of their children, whereas children value themselves more than their siblings -- so each child wants to get more than their fair share of parental resources." This means that the children are willing to settle for a mate who is less caring than their parents would ideally like.

The new theory, if correct, sheds light on an intriguing aspect of human behaviour and may help to explain patterns of variation across cultures. Piet van den Berg, lead author on the study, said: "Our model predicts that the conflict will be stronger when fathers rather than mothers control resources, but this remains to be tested."

In future work, the scientists plan to investigate preferences for different aspects of quality. "Surveys show that children tend to place more importance on physical attractiveness, smell and sense of humour, whereas parents care more about social class and family background," said Mr van den Berg. "We don't yet understand the reason for this difference, but it probably has something to do with our evolutionary history."

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6.6 Million Young Adults Joined Parents' Health Plans in 2011: Report

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

FRIDAY, June 8 (HealthDay News) -- About 6.6 million young American adults who would likely not have been able to be covered by their parents' health plans before the Affordable Care Act took effect joined such plans in 2011, a new report finds.

The new study from the Commonwealth Fund found that, in total, 13.7 million young American adults, aged 19 to 25, either stayed on or joined their parents' health plans last year.

But not all young adults can join their parents' health plans and many still have gaps in coverage and are burdened with medical bill problems and medical debt, the report found.

Nearly two in five young adults (39 percent) aged 19 to 29 went without health insurance at some time in 2011 and more than one-third (36 percent) had medical bill problems or were paying off medical debt. Of those who were dealing with medical bills or debt, many faced serious financial consequences such as using all of their savings (43 percent), being unable to make student loan or tuition payments (32 percent), delaying education or career plans (31 percent), or being unable to pay for necessities such as food, heat or rent (28 percent), the researchers said.

One-quarter of young adults with medical debt owed $4,000 or more, and 15 percent owed $8,000 or more, the report noted.

"While the Affordable Care Act has already provided a new source of coverage for millions of young adults at risk of being uninsured, more help is needed for those left behind," lead author and Commonwealth Fund Vice President Sara Collins said in a Commonwealth Fund news release.

Young adults in low-income households were most likely to be uninsured, the report said. Seventy percent of young adults with incomes below 133 percent of poverty ($14,484 for a single person) had a gap in coverage in 2011. That's more than three times the rate of those with incomes over 400 percent of poverty ($43,560 for a single person).

The study also found that only 17 percent of young adults aged 19 to 25 in low-income families stayed on or joined their parents' health plans, compared with 69 percent of those in the highest income households. Young adults older than 25 are not eligible.

Young adults who did not have insurance or had a gap in coverage were more likely than those with continuous coverage to skip or delay getting needed health care because of cost -- 60 percent, 56 percent and 29 percent, respectively.

However, Collins noted that "the law's major insurance provisions slated for 2014, including expanded Medicaid and subsidized private plans through state insurance exchanges, will provide nearly all young adults across the income spectrum with affordable and comprehensive health plans."

The findings are based on an online survey of 1,863 respondents, aged 19 to 29, that was conducted in November 2011.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has more about young adults and the Affordable Care Act.

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