Introduction
Parent-child conflicts are common problems confronted by family social workers. According to statistics, nearly half of all family issues associated with children are related to child behavior (Collins, Jordan, & Coleman, 2013).
The challenge is even more acute when a single mother has to raise the children. Therefore, it is critical for family social workers to be equipped with the necessary techniques and methods of dealing with deteriorating child behavior or unfavorable parenting skills. Baynard and Baynard’s three-step program can be used as a foundation for intervention strategy (Collins et al., 2013). To achieve a more tangible effect, however, positive reinforcement and teaching appropriate discipline can be added to compile a five-step process of handling child misbehavior.
Five-step Intervention Process
As part of behavior tracking and identification, the mother should make a list of child actions that are creating disagreements and tensions. The family social worker should guide the mother and discuss potential causes of each behavior. It is critical to see whether the mother’s lack of parenting skills is the cause or other factors are influencing the child. Only after compiling such a list it is possible to identify any recurring behavior or communication patterns.
In the next step, the mother separates the list into two piles – behaviors that may affect her future, and actions that affect only her child. For instance, if a child engages in criminal activity, such an act will have implications for the mother; therefore, it goes to the mother’s pile. Wasting time and not doing homework, on the other hand, will negatively influence the child’s future; therefore, it goes to the child’s pole.
The third step is parent education – the family social worker should teach the mother not to worry about behaviors in the child’s pile. The mother should learn to show that the child takes responsibility for items in the collection. The mother also should know how to share her trust in the child’s ability to make correct decisions. For behaviors in her pile, however, she should be equipped with necessary reinforcements.
The professional should also teach the mother how to engage in positive reinforcement appropriately. Parents’ attributions for positive child behaviors are critical, as studies suggest (Park et al., 2018). Therefore, the mother should know when to praise the child for favorable action – rewards will motivate the child to behave correctly more often. In contrast, if the mother does not respond to the positive behaviors of the child, a higher number of contrary acts may start occurring.
As with positive reinforcement, the mother should also know when to teach discipline to her child. The family social worker should talk about different ways of teaching discipline, such as punishment, extinction, and time-out (Collins et al., 2013). The professional should also discuss how each of the methods may affect the behavior and when these techniques are appropriate. For instance, punishment is usually applied to eliminate specific action immediately.
Conclusion
Child misbehavior is among the most common causes of conflicts within a family. Social workers are often called to handle this situation, but parents are the ones who are responsible. The circumstance is even more severe for single mothers with children. Through parent education, family social workers may facilitate the resolution of behavior conflicts. This paper presented a sample five-step process of such an intervention.
References
Collins, D., Jordan, C., & Coleman, H. (2013). An introduction to family social work (4th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Park, J. L., Johnston, C., Colalillo, S., & Williamson, D. (2018). Parents’ attributions for negative and positive child behavior in relation to parenting and child problems. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47(1), 63-75.