Comparison of the effectiveness of positive parentingeducation and parental management on children’sbehavioral problems

Positive parenting education and parental management can be effective ways to solve children’s behavioral problems. Meanwhile, the comparison of the effectiveness of these two methods has received less attention. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of positive parenting and parental management on children’s behavioral problems.

The research method was quasi-experimental with pre/test-post/test design with a control group and one-month follow-up. The statistical population included all parents of female students with behavioral problems in primary schools in Tehran in the academic year of 2019-2020, from which 45 parents with children with behavioral problems were selected and randomly assigned in 3 groups of 15 patients (two experimental groups and one control group). The Connors Parent Scale Questionnaire was administered to all three groups in all three stages of the study. Positive parenting training was performed in 8 sessions of 90 minutes and parental management training was performed in 12 sessions of 90 minutes on the experimental groups and the control group did not receive any intervention. Finally, the data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance.

The results of this study showed that there was no significant difference between the two educational methods (P <0.05). This means that positive parenting education and parental management had the same effect on the subscales of children’s behavioral problems, but the difference between the experimental groups and the control group in the subscales of normative behavior disorder (p <0.05, F = 5.07) and hyperactivity-impulsivity (P < 0.05, F = 4.52) are significant.

According to the findings, both positive parenting and parental management methods have the necessary efficiency to reduce children’s behavioral problems. In this regard, the results of the present study indicate that there is no clear difference in the effectiveness of positive parenting and parental management on reducing children’s behavioral problems.