Parent mentorship and self-efficacy: an inductive research study.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/d20003204

This study focuses on the problem of parents who lack positive parenting skills as linked to academic, social, emotional, and behavioral risk factors in children and adolescents (Webster-Stratton, 1998). High-risk parents who do not possess effective social and emotional tools and skills are unable to model and transfer these to skills to their own children. Given that the family and parent represent the first source of social learning and efficacy for children, children of the parents who lack these skills are not afforded the kind of affirmation supportive of their social development. This investigation explores the ways in which a collaborative parent-mentoring model can influence parenting skills and self-efficacy perceptions among high-risk parent populations. A basic qualitative inductive analysis is used to investigate how a Parent Partner's mentoring program impacts the development of parenting skills as perceived by the parents and parent mentors participating in the program. Data collection includes parent interviews, a parent mentor focus group, parent mentoring observations conducted by the researcher, as well as a program documentation review. The findings suggest the need to consider further research in the area of parent mentoring as a means of successfully engaging high-risk parent populations and promoting positive parenting and family outcomes. In addition, these types of collective support models may have success in helping to sustain and further progress.