Enhancing Growth in Parents as a Way of Promoting Family Life and Youth Health

The important link between family life and youth health and wellbeing is widely acknowledged in research and literature. Equally, it is noted that the nature of relationships youngsters have with their parents, necessarily impact on the psychological wellbeing of parents.

In the majority, current parent education programs focus on younger children, and largely advise parents on child development and child management. Depending on the theoretical orientation of the program, either the child's troublesome behaviour is focus for change or parents are required to change their behaviour or parenting techniques. The limitations of these approaches have been noted. While prescriptive parent education programs are clearly inappropriate where teenagers are the focus, few suitable group programs have been developed with a practical alternative orientation.

This paper reports on one form of parent education being developed at Springvale Community Health Centre which serves to explore the practical relevance and benefits of a family systems approach in support-group programs for parents of adolescent children. Essentially, the family systems approach locates the parent-teenager relationship in the context of the family. Using key notions such as context, connectedness, continuity and change an attempt is made in the group to facilitate personal growth and the emergence of an alternative vision of family dynamics and parenting relationships.

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

‘Will be to arrive where we started

And to know the place for the first time

(T.S. Eliot, “Little Gidding”)