Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Research has so many positive benefits on children and families. Without research, it would be difficult to understand the inner workings of data that we come across and how it affects our daily lives. I came across an article that discussed the grandparents role in childcare, and how having grandparents go through a parenting course to learn different parenting styles will help with anxiety, depression, stress, and relationships between the grandparent-parent and child. The reason for this particular research is because a lot of parents use grandparents as a form of childcare, but the grandparent-child relationship was more relaxed, hence making the parent-child relationship more taxing and stressful on both the parents and child. With that in mind, enrolling and following both grandparents and parents on a 6-month basis to see how effective the new parenting styles were that the grandparents learned, and how well it worked. The results found that the parent-child relationship was less stressful, the child’s behavior improved, as well as less anxiety between parent-child, as well as parent-grandparent. The same rang true for the grandparents who cared for the children; their levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and intense behavior from the child had decreased.

I think that this is such a great way to display the benefits of research on children and families because this study shows how important it is to have a balance of parenting styles between grandparents and parents, as well as teaching new and different parenting styles to help keep parenting styles between parents and grandparents cohesive. Grandparents can sometimes interfere with the parenting of the parents, thus making parenting children harder and more difficult, not to mention, confusing for the child. This helps others find that much needed balance, and help with keeping families together.

Reference:

Kirby, J. N., & Sanders, M. R. (2013). Using a Behavioural Family Intervention to Produce a Three-Generational Benefit on Family Outcomes: A Case Report. Behaviour Change, 30(4), 249-261. doi:10.1017/bec.2013.24

Personal Research Journey

I chose to do more research on preschool assessments; more particularly, how effective are children/preschool assessments and what measures seem the most important to a child’s overall development. I also want to know how families view them and what their understanding of these assessments are and how they feel it helps them with nurturing their child’s overall growth and development. I have been doing assessments for years, and it took me awhile to really understand them. With that being said, I always wondered how parents felt about them, and did they understand them as well. Every child develops differently, and every assessment is different, depending on the program and school. I think the main focus is to see what is measured in an assessment over time, and how what is measured can be helpful and beneficial to teachers, as well as parents to continue to nurture a child's overall development.

This simulation process is different but very interesting because it is helping me to really sit down and draw out information and ideas about a topic I did not know how to approach for years. I am nervous, but excited to know more about the topic I chose. I like that we are learning about how to look and find certain things that make our research articles authentic and credible. The chart helped me to know where to look for important pieces of information without having to waste precious and valuable time. I think that the Walden Library is a great place to get peer-reviewed research papers, articles, and journal entries. If there is any insights you all may have, please feel free to share, and as I continue to embark on this journey, any other things I see that may help, I will definitely let you all know. I hope that so far, so good for everyone!