Enhancing the Parent-Child Relationship: A Hong Kong Community-Based Randomized Controlled Trial

• Published in: Journal of family psychology 2014-02, Vol.28 (1), p.42-53
• Main Authors: Fabrizio, Cecilia S., Stewart, Sunita M., Ip, Alison K. Y., Lam, Tai Hing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Behavior; Behavior Therapy - methods; Child; Child development; Chinese Cultural Groups; Chinese people; Cross Cultural Differences; Female; Hong Kong; Human; Humans; Intergenerational relationships; Intervention; Male; Parent Child Relations; Parent-Child relationships; Parenting; Parenting - psychology; Parenting Skills; Parents; Parents & parenting; Parents - education; Personal Satisfaction; Prevention; Protective Factors; Randomized controlled trials; Relationship Satisfaction; Residence Characteristics; Risk assessment; Teenagers; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0893-3200; 1939-1293
• DOI: 10.1037/a0035275

Adolescence is a critical risk period for negative academic and behavioral outcomes, but a strong parent-child relationship can be a powerful protective factor. Our previous pilot of an academic-community agency collaborative randomized controlled trial (RCT) demonstrated initial evidence of benefit for a parenting intervention with preadolescents in Hong Kong. The present RCT assessed the effect of brief training in positive discipline parenting skills on parental satisfaction with the parent-child relationship. A community sample of 461 Hong Kong Chinese parents of children aged 10-13 years were randomized to (a) the Harmony@Home intervention, (b) an attention control, or (c) a third active intervention that shared the control group. Participants were followed for 12 months and multiple methods of assessment were used. Compared with the control group, the Harmony@Home group reported an increase in the primary outcome of satisfaction with the parent-child relationship at 3 months' postintervention. Although results are mixed, this study demonstrates how a culturally adaptive community intervention can improve the parental behaviors that serve as protective factors against negative academic and behavioral outcomes for Chinese adolescents.