Impacto de sesiones de coaching en la labor educativa de los padres en el ámbito familiar

Abstract

Becoming a mother/father brings about vast transformations in people’s lives, as it constitutes a continuous and complex adaptation process to a new role which implies new duties that need to be faced. Nowadays, one of the most important social policies in most of the developed countries are Parent Training Programs, a field within family intervention. Coaching is a very useful tool for people subjected to processes of change, situations with a great emotional meaning or in need of deepening one or several aspects in their lives. In recent years this methodology has become very important in different areas such as education or health, where it has turned out to be -with proven results- a new trend in health promotion and education, with different uses like patient empowerment and self-control. We assume, then, that parents could use this methodology with regards to the education of their children, although no previous literature in this field has been found. This study shall confirm the effectiveness of coaching sessions, whether they are carried out in groups or individually, as a support for modern training programs in comparison to the traditional system, which only includes training programs (understood as “expert education”) for parents with children aged 3-5 years. To pursue this aim, the investigation combines a quantitative and qualitative design. In the quantitative part a pre-experimental model (pretest to post-test) will be used. In the qualitative part we will use a model based on discussion groups. The study included 25 parents with children aged 3-5 years. The program combined parents training sessions (a theoretical-practical seminar) with coaching sessions, which were carried out in groups or individually. ANOVA was used to verify the equality of means of the three independent populations with normal distribution. In addition, an analysis of the major components by which the items of the questionnaire/variables are classified is carried out. This analysis includes three main dimensions that shall explain most of the causes of variability in the data. The discussion group was analysed from a qualitative point of view using the transcription of the recording of the full session (20 minutes) and a questionnaire was filled out after the program. When the seminar is finished, the partners of the parents who have taken an active part will also complete a questionnaire which will prove the perceived improvement after the sessions and that will be analysed as well. After analysing the paired samples test we have observed statistically significant differences within the three groups in the variable: How often parents raise their voice to make their children obey. In the group that attended the theoretical-practical seminar there is statistical significance in other three variables: How often they break a rule they have set for their children, Feeling anxious and Feelings of tension when their children have been ill. When the program was finished, a reduction of the levels of anxiety and tension in parents when their children were ill could be observed. Furthermore, the variable: How often they break a rule they have set for their children also shows differences between “before the program” and “after the program”. In this case, all the averages (across the three groups) had significantly decreased after finishing the program, although statistical significance is only reached in the group that attended the theoretical/practical seminar. We can also note an increase in the mean of the variable: Expressing the unacceptable behaviours of their children with a strict rule. This means parents explain themselves more clearly when they make references to the unacceptable behaviours of their children after finishing the program. Also in this area statistically significant differences between the groups attending the theoretical-practical seminar and coaching in groups can be observed. In the qualitative part, changes explicitly reflected in these areas have been verified while analysing the conversation: self-discovery, thinking, conduct/behaviour, sensations/state and emotional management. The perceived benefit in the family dynamics has also been analysed through a questionnaire given to partners of the attendees of the program. It is worth noting that 90.47% of those surveyed believe their partner (the attendee) is more confident than themselves when it comes to making decisions with regards to their children. 85.71% feel calmer when his or her partner handles different situations with their children. 81% believe their partner has more resources available to them when managing daily life situations with their children and 90.47% consider their everyday family life has generally improved after the attendance of their partner to the program. Thus, we have been able to verify through a quantitative and qualitative analysis (even with the mentioned sample size) the initial hypothesis for which the study was designed, with highly successful results. In order to do so, we have put in objective terms the impact of the coaching sessions -in both individual and in groups- in the familiar dynamics (relationship of parents and their children) in different variables. Furthermore it has been observed that after every kind of the proposed training programs there is an improvement across dimensions such as self-control and emotional management, security in decision making and behavioural changes at family level. Both individual and group coaching significantly improves parents’ commitment to the program, as it has been proved that 100% of parents taking active part in these two groups fully complete the training.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15304/ie.25.2821