Suchergebnisse

ObjectiveTo examine selection criteria for Parent‐to‐Parent support parents trained to provide support to other parents of children with disabilities.MethodTen leaders of Parent‐to‐Parent programmes participated in telephone interviews to explore attributes associated with parents selected to be trained as support parents.ResultsQualitative analysis reveals parents deemed "ready" to become support parents, build relationships, exhibit positivity, build capacities, have good communication skills and a future orientation and feel the need to give back. An additional set of attributes we have named, "red flags" are associated with parents not suitable to provide support are also presented.ConclusionsParent‐to‐Parent support parents are informally identified by a set of characteristics that can be operationalized for screening purposes. Findings provide support for the positive influence of the peer support relationship and identify the need for a measure of parent "readiness" to assist in the recruitment of quality support parents for the Parent‐to‐Parent organization.

AbstractObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to develop a measure of readiness to be trained as a supporting parent volunteer for the Parent to Parent USA Network.BackgroundParents of children with disabilities may suffer from isolation, stress, and depression due to increased burden of caregiving, lack of knowledge about disability, stigmatization by community and family and/or reduced family income. Peer support can serve as a buffer to stress.MethodsMeasure items are based on qualitative findings and a review of relevant literature. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to determine the factor structure, and predictive validity was assessed using two‐sample t tests.ResultsThe 17‐item measure comprised three factors—Into Action, Wellbeing, and Skills and Navigation—and demonstrated good internal consistency. Additionally, significant differences in readiness score were found between parents who had and those who had not been trained to be peer supports and parents who had and had not received support from P2P.ImplicationsThis measure may facilitate further study and evaluation of P2P and may be useful to other programs serving families of children with special educational or health care needs.