Introduction. Parent and professionals alike acknowledge that approaches to managing children’s behavior can be affected when the parent is ‘out of control’. Although identified as a contributing factor in the abuse of children from shaken baby syndrome to physical abuse, this phenomenon is not well documented. Background. Based on recommendations from formative research conducted in 1999, one upstate New York county developed a campaign to provide parents with coping strategies when out of control and facing a parent-child conflict. Methods. To track campaign effectiveness baseline measures were obtained through a telephone survey. Over 700 parents of children under age five, selected randomly from households across the county were asked if they had ever felt ‘stressed out’ (out of control), if they could sense when this was happening and how they modified their behavior when faced with a misbehaving child. Results. Most parents who reported being ‘stressed out’ (95%) but only 72% could sense it was happening to them. Of these, all had a variety of approaches with 75% reporting at least one approach as ‘very likely’ to use. Conclusions. Nearly all parents report being stressed out, but not all were aware of it. Most identified several coping strategies, 25% reported no one commonly used approach. Public Health Implications. Parents may need help identifying their personal signs that they are out of control and developing effective strategies that work with their approach to management of children’s behavior. This could reduce the escalation of a child-parent conflict into a situation of abuse.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to: 1 - List methods used by parents to moderate their reactions to children's misbehavior 2 - Identify characteristics of parents who self-report feeling out of control 3 - Describe differences among parents who can and cannot sense when they are out of control
Keywords: Children, Violence Prevention
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.