The development and testing of a multi-ethnic, low literacy, family support programme for the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect in the child under five years.
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Date
1995
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Abstract
The main aim of this research was to identify a family support programme which could
be used as a primary prevention strategy against child abuse as a first positive step within
the family, the basic unit of society, towards reducing community violence. The central
focus of this intervention was that it should be appropriate for use in a multi-ethnic South
African context and implementable by community health nurses or related lay health
personnel with minimal training. No such programme was identified. The researcher
attempted to integrate the most appropriate and scientifically substantiated features of
existing programmes and develop a unique South African programme. This programme
was developed and tested in a participatory manner with multiethnic communities.
Community health nurse facilitators were trained and evaluated and the developed
programme was then implemented by these facilitators in several sites. The influences of
the developed programme were extensively evaluated. Changes in attitudes, feelings and
behaviour of the child, the mother, the maternal-child interaction and the family system
were explored. A quasi-experimental design with pre and post testing of the experimental group and two
control groups (control 1 received social support and control 2 receiving routine clinic
nursing only) was utilized. Completed analysis has yielded some exciting and provocative results. There are clear
differences in each of the groups attitudes to their children. On the Mother-Child
Relationship Evaluation (MCRE) positive gains in maternal-child relationship were
established for the experimental group and this was greater than that of both controls
(t-test = 4.151 @ alpha = 0.0013; H=4.0734 @ alpha = 0.04 and F=7.031 @ alpha
= 0.0004). On the Family Assessment Device (FAD) some limited changes were observed
in the experimental group over the controls (F= 3 .33 @ alpha = 0.05). This is a positive
outcome indicating that the family support programme evidenced significant changes in the
participants relationships with their children and in their families and wider social life.
Mothers and facilitators qualitative feedback reported positive interaction with young and
older children and changed maternal and child attitude and behaviour. Despite the critical
shortage of staff in community health settings facilitators continue to implement the
programme voluntarily in their service settings.
Description
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1995.
Keywords
Child abuse--Prevention., Child neglect., Child abuse--Prevention--Evaluation., Child abuse., Theses--Nursing.