by Melissa L. Abell, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Timothy L. Davey, Ph.D., Associate Dean of Community Engagement
According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP, 2009), 32 percent of Virginia's children reside in low income families, defined as those families that earn 200 percent or less of the federal poverty threshold. Poverty threatens the health and well-being of children. Compared to non-poor children, low income children have an enhanced risk for a number of problems including poor mental and physical health, academic failure, and behavioral outcomes such as aggression, substance abuse, and delinquency (Fraser & Galinsky, 1997).
Certainly not all children who live in poverty experience such pessimistic outcomes, so it is important to understand those pathways through which low income may have an adverse effect on children's health and welfare. Systemic factors such as the absence of a living wage, discrimination, neighborhood disorganization, and poor school environments enhance the possibility of negative outcomes; however, family life, including positive parent discipline, ample supervision and an affirmative family climate, may alleviate some of the harmful effects of poverty (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997). In the absence of a living wage, parents who are poor often work long hours and/or multiple jobs to meet their families' needs. Or, they may be unemployed or underemployed feeling powerless to effect change in their families' income. Such stressors may increase frustration and depression contributing to parenting styles that are harsh and punitive or conversely, lax and neglectful. Either parenting style may contribute to negative behavioral outcomes for children. Social workers may be able to collaborate with families to enhance family life including parent discipline and supervision that may, in turn, create healthier outcomes for poor children.
Parenting groups are popular interventions for working with parents to enhance parenting skills. Unfortunately, parenting groups often suffer high rates of attrition and/or sporadic attendance by parents due to factors such as lack of transportation or absence of child care. These factors may result in a lack of group cohesiveness and the support that is necessary to ensure success. At VCU we took a different approach. We designed and implemented a parenting intervention that includes the whole family in a fun weekend retreat where parents and children can "get away" in the wilderness to enjoy activities with each other and with other families. The Multiple Family Group Weekend Retreat (The Retreat) is a program that provides intensive family interaction in a wilderness setting. Trained MSW students, under the supervision of a licensed practitioner, offer groups to parents that enhance parenting skills, to children that teach prosocial skills, and to all families that focus on interactive fun activities. The groups emphasize interaction within families and between families.
The Retreat is offered in a beautiful and rustic setting. It begins late Friday afternoon and ends about 9:00PM on Saturday evening. VCU provides van transportation to all families to and from the retreat center which is located about 60 miles from Richmond. Parents are invited to stay in a large house at the retreat center. Children and MSW student facilitators "counselors" stay in cabins nearby on the retreat property. Separating the children from the adults provides time for children to bond with other children and adults to dialogue about common concerns. Meals are enjoyed in a common dining facility.
The Retreat curriculum is comprised of five units; 1) trust-building, 2)communication, 3) stress management, 4) discipline, and 5) family beliefs and traditions. Within each unit there are activities for children and for parents separately, as well as opportunities for parents and children to work together. Parent groups are structured and focus on the "topic" at hand while allowing for parent concerns to emerge. The children's groups are less structured and activities are geared to fun ways of learning material that parallels what the parents are deliberating. For example, when parents are discussing communication techniques, children may participate in games that highlight the need for effective communication, e.g., the "telephone" game. Activities for children are also developmentally appropriate such that preschoolers and elementary school children participate in different activities than adolescents. Throughout the weekend children and their parents collaborate with each other and with other families on formulating consistent family rules, identifying rewards and consequences for child behavior, revisiting and strengthening family beliefs and traditions, and engaging in other fun games and leisure activities such as creating a family scrapbook that foster family cohesion and unity.
We evaluated the intervention by comparing pretest and posttest outcomes from participants in the Retreat to similar families who were unable to attend the Retreat. Fifty-seven parents and 90 children attended the Retreat during a two year period. Ninety percent of the sample parents identified themselves as African-American and 80 percent of the parents were female. We assessed children on internalizing and externalizing behaviors (aggression) and parents on stress as well as overall family functioning. Parents also completed a satisfaction survey. We found that children who attended the Retreat improved from pretest to posttest on internalizing and externalizing behaviors while the comparison group of children worsened on the same measures. We found a similar outcome for stress in parents. Those parents who attended the Retreat reported greater stress prior to the Retreat than those in the comparison group, nevertheless, they reported significantly less stress from pretest to posttest while parents in the comparison group reported significantly more stress from pretest to posttest. There were no statistically significant differences on family functioning between the families who attended the Retreat and those who did not although the scores were in the preferred direction for the Retreat families. Families who attended the Retreat reported that they really enjoyed the experience with an overall 4.7 out of 5.0 on seven different items rating satisfaction, such as; "The Retreat helped us to feel better about our family," "The activities were fun for our family," and "The Retreat has helped me to better understand my family."
It is important to note other features of the Retreat that illustrate the potential of the program. First, many families commented on the fact that the practitioners, many of them students, were friendly, collaborative, empowering, and supportive of their needs. Second, the groups provide a powerful learning tool for our students. Student practitioners learn how to manage groups in a process that is different from the typical group within a clinical setting. Our practitioners, both students and community clinicians, go through a thorough training that emphasizes family strengths, cultural diversity, and a model of collaboration.
Groups provide an efficient and effective means of service delivery. Multi-family groups offer opportunities for families of similar circumstances to come together and discuss mutual concerns. The feelings of "universalization of experience" tend to be therapeutic for the families who participate. Additionally, children and parents can find friendship networks and meaningful resolution of problems that often present in low income families. Family culture is central. Family rituals and traditions are identified and honored. Family unity is fostered through multi-group activities as well as informal family activities such as fishing on the lake, playing games, or making a scrapbook. Overall, this appears to be a powerful intervention through which families can unite, learn, problem-solve, and initiate those changes they believe are relevant to their family experiences.