A follow-up study of the effectiveness of the mother training program on mothers

Abstract

The present study was an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of the mother training program which was applied as a part of the Turkish Early Enrichment Project (TEEP) in 1982-1986 (Kağıtçıbaşı, Sunar, and Bekman, 1988). It aimed to determine whether the mother training program helped the mothers change their traditional point of view into a more modern perspective. In other words, the expectation was that the perceptions and attitudes of the more traditional lower SES groups would be changed by the program in the direction of the more modern, urban, welleducated middle SES group. Three groups of mothers made up the sample of the study: 1. low SES trained mothers (the experimental group) 2. low SES untrained mothers (the first control group) 3. middle SES untrained mothers (the second control group). These groups were compared on five basic subscales of the Follow-Up study Mother Interview Form: the life satisfaction scale, the woman's intra family status and decisionmaking power scale, the communication with the child scale, the family reinforcement of student role scale, and the mother's positive evaluation of her child scale. Only on the family reinforcement of student role scale was a significant difference found among the groups; differences on the other scales were not significant; Generally, the significant difference among the groups on the family reinforcement of student role scale could be explained by the consideration given to parent behavior related to child's cognitive development during the program and the insignificant differences among the groups could be explained by the mothers' own traditional upbringing and persisting environmental circumstances. As-given circumstances endure, their effects become more and more difficult to change. Unless the negative influences of living in disadvantaged areas are counteracted in long-term and the nonformal parent education programs are supported by informal activities (e.g. TV/radio programs, mass-media instruments), they will not be as effective as expected.