The Effect of Relationship Enhancement Program (REP) on Reducing Parent-Child Conflicts

Most parents and teens have attitudes, viewpoints and completely different expectations about family rules, power and interpersonal relationships, leading to parent-child conflict. This study aimed at investigating the impact of REP on reducing parent-child conflicts.
This quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study with control was conducted on third- grade female students of Shahriar city in academic year of 2012-2013. Among the schools, one was selected via random sampling. Then, 20 students with the highest scores on the questionnaire were selected and assigned to two groups of experiment and control through random assignment method. Conflict tactics scale (CST, 1983) was used for gathering the data. After taking pretest from both groups, the educational intervention (REP) was performed for the experimental group in 8 group session, but the control group was put on the waiting list. The data was analyzed by Statistical software, SPSS v.18 & Multivariate Covariance Analysis Test (MANCOVA).
Findings: The result suggested that relationship enhancement program has significantly reduced parent-child conflict and its dimensions (verbal aggressiveness and physical aggressiveness). Other findings indicated that this educational intervention has been significantly effective in increasing the ability of using discursive strategies in students.
It seems that REP has reduced parent-child conflict through delivering effective relational skills, and it has also led to improvement in family relationship quality.