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Parenting Education

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  Advocate

"We need people to be the voices of the ‘voteless’ and to strengthen community resources."
Cynthia E. Johnson, Human Development Specialist, North Carolina State University.

In addition to skills for directly facilitating the growth and development of themselves and their children, effective parents connect with community resources and work to increase the probability that their children’s and family’s needs will be met. They seek out programs, institutions, and professionals that provide services important to their children and/or family. They represent their children’s needs to those organizations or individuals to facilitate a linkage between that community service and the child. When policies and procedures in the community impede children’s growth or make it difficult for families to function, advocate parents speak up and take action to change those policies.

Children whose parents ADVOCATE  for them are less likely than other children to get lost between the cracks or to be offered services that simply do not fit. Parents who advocate establish a thread of connections between home and the community, building a harmonious and responsive environment for children. As the number of ADVOCATE  parents increases, the quality of the community environment for children increases.

Critical ADVOCATE  Practices

Find, use, and create community resources when needed to benefit one’s children and the community of children. Stimulate social change to create supportive environments for children and families. Build relationships with family, neighborhood, and community groups.

Examples of Specific Program Objectives for ADVOCATE  

The following parent behaviors serve as examples of more specific outcome objectives based on the critical practices for ADVOCATE :

• List four characteristics of a high quality community service program or agency.
• Describe a process to follow to find high quality child care.
• List five family needs and the community services that could help meet those needs.
• Write a letter to a legislator concerning an issue important to children and/or families.
• Establish a Mother’s Day Out program.
• Establish a babysitting cooperative.
• Contact their children’s school and set up a parent-teacher conference.
• Join and contribute to a parent advisory group.
• Make a list of concerns and questions to take to a well-baby visit.
• Make a phone call to an agency to ask for information.
• Fill out a form for services.
• Communicate with a teacher about something that is going right and something that is going wrong.
• Improve parent-caregiver relations.
• Describe parent rights regarding the Freedom of Information Act.

What We Know About ADVOCATE  

A basic function and responsibility of parents is to ADVOCATE  with the wider community on the behalf of one’s own and all children. Alvy (1987) describes five interrelated functions and responsibilities of parenting. In addition to such roles as establishing and maintaining a home and providing for the social-emotional and intellectual growth of children, he outlines the tasks of linking with the wider community and speaking up for the needs of one’s own children in general.

Parents need to have certain attitudes, abilities, and knowledge to be effective advocates. If parents do not believe in themselves and their ability to effect change, they may not even try to get involved in formal social systems. Because that involvement requires communication and could lead to conflict, they should have skills in those areas. Their involvement is most likely to be effective if they understand how political, educational, legal, and medical systems operate (Small & Eastman, 1991).

Parents typically turn to agencies only after their informal networks have proven to be inadequate. Community services are related to greater life satisfaction for adult mothers, but support from family and friends appears to be more important for teen parents (Nath, Borkowski, Whitman, & Schellenback, 1991).

Teen parents may feel more insecure about their competence and are more likely to depend on their adult mothers to guide them through the services available to them. Isolated teen parents are likely to be especially at risk because they may lack the confidence to initiate contact with agencies that could provide critical support.

Community services should be part of a system of supporting families in meeting the needs of the parents and children, instead of stepping in only when they have failed. Nurturing children is the interdependent responsibility of the family, state, volunteer community agencies, and private economic sector. There is a need to rebalance responsibility for children among the multiple players, not just between the family and state. What can government and community do to enhance a family’s capacity to help themselves and others?

Weiss (1990) examined the historical nature of the relationship between families and institutions designed to provide support as well as numerous reports of recent commissions and study groups. She concluded that a coherent system of family-oriented, as opposed to child- or bureaucracy-oriented services, and a broader public and institutional commitment to strengthening families is needed. Communities must assume a moral obligation for the well-being of all children.

Mothers with good expressive skills and strong support systems are more likely to enroll in and benefit from programs. Expressive mothers are more likely than others to contribute verbally and to form friendships with others in parent education programs. Mothers who feel confident about their ability to control events in their lives are more likely to enroll, experience less difficulty, and be more flexible in attitudes. Mothers with extensive networks are more responsive to home-based parent education and more likely to form friendships with others who are involved. Many reality factors in the environment make it difficult to attract, retain, and positively influence parents in an educational setting (Powell, 1986).

Parents of special-needs children face many of the same stressors as other parents and many unique ones. They may receive the most significant help from each other. Isolation can be particularly harmful to families with developmentally-delayed children; parents must cultivate supportive relationships based on mutual need. The demands of caring for a developmentally-delayed child tax the resources of any parent. Building collaborative networks is especially important for these parents (Schilling, Gilchrist, & Schinke, 1984). Seventy-five percent who experience a wide range of chronic conditions said they had difficulty understanding their children’s diseases or wanted more information about them, such as the nature of the condition, daily management, and child development (Hymovich & Baker, 1985). Parents can inform each other about services available from various government agencies. By linking together with other parents with similar challenges, they can make their voices heard by those involved in public policy and program delivery.

Printed and learn-at-home materials can connect parents with an information network. Parents who receive newsletters or learn-at-home materials report interest in learning more about children and parenting. This allows parents to access the information network. The great majority of parents who received age-paced newsletters and who completed evaluation questionnaires indicated that newsletters were useful in promoting their self-confidence as parents, improving their knowledge of child development, and increasing their ability to be effective, nurturing parents (Cudaback, et al., 1985).

Contact with professionals can significantly influence beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge of parents. Physicians exchanged knowledge and information with Hispanic parents and influenced the beliefs of those parents regarding the abilities and rights of their physically handicapped children (Shapiro & Tittle, 1990). The value of such contact with physicians, nurses, and other professionals is in changing parents’ misconceptions about the nature of their children’s disabilities and developing more positive beliefs in general about people with disabilities. Support from informal networks of relatives and friends is more important in meeting emotional needs.

Making good choices about community services requires information, resources, and ability to access services. Those parents who are most likely to use low-quality child care are those who do not know how to identify quality, those who have few choices and limited access, and those with limited incomes to afford high-quality care. Therefore, families likely to use low-quality child care are those with low incomes (those with the lowest incomes may qualify for support and special programs, but the slots are limited); parents of infants; parents with nontypical working hours; and parents with children for whom there are limited settings, such as parents of school-age children, parents of sick children, and parents of special needs children (Adams, 1990).

Effective education involves dialogue, critical literacy, a consideration of the learner’s social context, and education for change. Teachers and learners should learn from each other, should work at pulling apart and understanding materials rather than simply memorizing them, and should study the system and how it can be changed. It is not enough for parents to simply learn information; they need to gain skills for making a difference in the larger system (Shor, 1987).

An empowerment approach may be initially uncomfortable for parents. Structure and direction may be necessary during the early stages of introducing an empowerment approach. As parents become more comfortable with the approach, they will begin to ask each other questions, give helpful ideas, and develop their own models and conceptualizations (Shor, 1987).

Parents frequently view their children’s participation in out-of-school activities as a way to complement their academic achievement. Community services are not only for parents. Parents may want their children to participate in community-based activities to improve their academic performance, to develop individual responsibility, to develop morally, and or pure enjoyment (Powell & Peet, 1992).

References

Adams, G. C. (1990). Who knows how safe? The status of state efforts to ensure quality child care. Washington, DC: Children’s Defense Fund.

Alvy, K. T. (1987). Black parenting. New York: Irvington.

Cudaback, D., Darden, C., Nelson, P., O’Brien, S., Pinsky, D., & Wiggins, E. (1985). Becoming successful parents: Can age-paced newsletters help? Family Relations, 34, 271-275.

Hymovich, D. P., & Baker, C. D. (1985). The needs, concerns and coping of parents of children with cystic fibrosis. Family Relations, 34, 91-97.

Nath, P. S., Borkowski, J. G., Whitman, T. L., & Schellenback, C. J. (1991). Understanding adolescent parenting: The dimensions and functions of social support. Family Relations, 40, 411-420.

Powell, D. R. (1986). Research in review: Parent education and support programs. Young Children, 45, 47-53.

Powell, D. R., & Peet, S. H. (1992). Family educational outlook study. West Lafayetter, IN: Purdue University.

Schilling, R. F., Gilchrist, L. D., & Schinke, S. P. (1984). Coping and social support in families of developmentally disabled children. Family Relations, 33, 47-54.

Shapiro, J., & Tittle, K. (1990). Maternal adaptation to child disability in a Hispanic population. Family Relations, 39, 179-185.

Shor, I. (Ed.). (1987). Freer for the classroom: A sourcebook for liberatory teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.

Small, S. A., & Eastman, G. (1991). Rearing adolescents in contemporary society: A conceptual framework for understanding the responsibilities and needs of parents. Family Relations, 40, 455-462.

Weiss, H. B. (1990). Beyond parens patriae: Building policies and programs to care for our own and others’ children. Children and Youth Services Review, 12, 269-284.

This material is reproduced with permission. Smith, C. A., Cudaback, D., Goddard, H. W., & Myers-Walls, J. A. (1994). National Extension Parent Education Model. Manhattan, KS: Kansas Cooperative Extension System.

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Last Modified: 08/29/07
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