Lorton, John

Nielsen, Sally H.

Randolph, Daniel L

English

Nielsen, Sally H

UND Scholarly Commons (University of North Dakota)

Journal of Teaching and Learning Volume 5 Issue 1 Article 6 4-1980 Effects of Adlerian Parent Consultation on the Academic Achievement of Kindergarten Children Sally H. Nielsen Daniel L. Randolph John Lorton Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/tl-journal  Part of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons Recommended Citation Nielsen, Sally H.; Randolph, Daniel L.; and Lorton, John (1980) "Effects of Adlerian Parent Consultation on the Academic Achievement of Kindergarten Children," Journal of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 5 : Iss. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://commons.und.edu/tl-journal/vol5/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Teaching and Learning by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact und.commons@library.und.edu. Effects of Adlerian Parent Consultation on the Academic Achievement of Kindergarten Children * Sally H. Nielsen La mar University Dani el Lee Randolph University of Southern Mississippi John Lorton University of New Orleans Dreikurs and his associates (1958; 1964) sug-gested the application of Adlerian psychological methods as a preventive intervention for use by parents . Dreikurs and Soltz (1964) summarized the rationale for the use of Adlerian methods as follows: " . . 0 children can no longer be forced into compliance; they must be stimulated and encouraged into voluntarily taking their part in the maintenance of order. We need new principles of child- raising to replace the obsolete ones" (p . 10) . Furthermore, Dreikurs (1958) indicated that a parent has a great deal of influence upon a child's attitude toward achievement . Several researcher; examined the effect iveness of Adlerian parent consultation sessions (De Laurier, 1975; Frazier & Matthes, 1975; Freeman, 1975; Vandette, 1964). Since it appears that these previous studies of effects of Adlerian parent training on the achievement of participants ' children did not include adjustment for differences in I oQ. and I .Q. is gen-erally acknowledged to account for a substantial part of the total variance of school achievement , the present study was initiated to remedy this flaw . *All related correspondence should be sent to : Daniel Lee Randolph , Southern Station Box 9327, Hattiesburg, MS 39401 47 Specifically, the purpose of this investigation was to determine whether Adlerian parent consultation group training and a control condition have differ-ential effects on I,Q o-adjusted reading recognition achievement , spelling achievement and general infor-mation achievement of kindergarten children . Method Subjects The sample for this investigation was drawn from 86 volunteer parents and their 43 children enrolled in the Campus Kindergarten at the University of Southern Mississippi . Sixty parents (and their 30 children) were randomly selected from the above group; then 30 parents (and their 15 children) were assigned to each group, an experimental and a control . The children of the two groups were approximately equal with respect to chronological age, parent ' s socio-economic status and sex . All children were Caucasian and their parents were middle to upper middle class o The mean I.Q . for the experimental group was 114; for the control group is was 116 0 Procedure Consultant leaders for the parent consultation training sessions were graduate student psychologists who were enrolled in a course in mental health con -sultation . In addition to consultant training, the graduate student psychologists were trained in Adlerian methods and in a system of observing parents at home (Randolph, 1978) to determine whether parents actually implemented the methods learned . Observation training was continued until paired-observer agreement reached at least 95 %. Experimental group parents attended six weekly consultation training sessions of at least two hours each. Each week, several of the Adlerian principles for living with children (Dreikurs & Soltz, 1964) were 48 presented, discussed and practiced via parent role-pl aying. Beginning with the second session, obser-vations of the parents' implementation of Adlerian methods at home were also presented to the parents by the consultants, followed by a discussion. Also, during the fourth session, the parents were shown a film of Rudolf Dreikurs demonstrating the application of Adlerian methods (American Personnel and Guidance Association, 1969) . Instrumentation The Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) were administered to both experimental and control group children on a postest only basis. Several researchers reported data supporting the validity (Burns, Peterson and Bauer, 1974; Dunn and Markwardt, 1970) and relia-bility (French, 1972) of the PIAT. The PIAT was developed by Dunn and Markwardt (1970) as a wide-range screening measure of achievement for ages 4-18 years. The subtests contain 84 items each, except reading comprehension, which contains 66 items. Several researchers also reported data supporting the validity (Dunn, 1965; Raskin, Stuart & Black, 1974) and reliability (Dunn, 1965) of the PPVT. The PPVT was developed by Dunn (1965) to provide an individual intelligence quotient for subjects ranging from 2 1/2 to 18 years of agP- . The test is available in Form A and Form B, with each form containing 150 number plates made up of line drawings preceded by three example plates . Home Observation As a validity check to determine whether parents did, in fact, implement Adlerian methods in the home, trained raters observed once per week in each ex-perimental group home to determine whether parents met certain minimum "performance standards." The observation procedure utilized was outlined in a 49 previous article (Randolph, 1978). Observations revealed that the parents met the minimum four-to-one ratios required for each of the following bipolar sets of responses: encouragement/discouragement, withdrawal/surrender, and consequence/punishment. Results Posttest means, adjusted means and F-Ratios for three academic achievement criteria are presented in Table 1. Table 1 Means and F-Ratios for General Information, Spelling, and Reading Recognition Achievement Adjusted Variable Group Posttest Posttest Mean Mean General Experimental 22 . 07 22 • .3~ Information Control 20 . 73 20.47 Spelling Experimental 18.00 18 . 11 Control 15 . 53 15.42 Reading Experimental 18.27 18.41 Recognition Control 16.00 15 . 86 F-Ratio .40 2.74 1. 78 The F-Ratios obtained for General Information, Spelling and Reading Recognition were all nonsignifi-cant (d.f . = 1, 28). 50 Discussion The findings of this investigation do not appear to support the use of Adlerian parent consultation for increasing achievement scores. Further, these findings seem to concur with those of Frazier and Matthes (1975) and De Laurier (1975). Several plausible rival hypotheses might explain the results of the present study and imply directions for the implementation of future studies. Multiple-treatment interference is a possible threat to the validity of the research findings. The experimental and control groups were virtually bombarded with a myriad of novel experiences as a result of the child enrolling in the kindergarten program at the Univer-sity o Thus the "treatment" and control conditions may have been only one of many novel experiences for the children and their parents. While the criterion measures selected for this study were included on the basis of a priori value judgments, they may not have been the singularly most appropriate devices. Since Adlerian principles are teleoanalytic (teleos being Greek for causality from the future, or one's goal), a pre-post adminis-tration of a goals inventory may have been a more appropriate, sensitive criterion from which to assess the effectiveness of the treatment. Selection biases may represent another threat to the validity of the study. Parents were invited to participate; it seems plausible that parents who are most effective/successful with their children would feel less reason to view discussions of child-rearing as threatening, and therefore be more likely to volunteer to participate in Adlerian sessions. Similarly, the children of these middle-class, volunteer parents appear to have been functioning at high levels of a·chievement and discipline at the beginning of the study; thus it may have been un-reasonable to expect them to show a great deal of improvement. 51 The use of (a) middle class parents and (b) children who are generally not seen as manifesting learning or disciplinary problems seems to charac-terize most of the other Adlerian studies reported in the literature o Before more substantial con-clusions may be made regarding the effectiveness of Adlerian parent consultation, it is recommended that additional studies be done which utilize children who are identified as frequently presenting discipline and learning problems in the school and home. Finally , future studies should include consultation with parents who represent all segments of the socio-economic spectrum. 52 REFERENCES American Personnel and Guidance Association . Individual psychology: A demonstration with a parent, a teacher and a child . The Distinguished Contributors to Counseling Series o Washington, DoCo: APGA, 1969. Burns, D., Peterson, Do & Bauer, Lo The concurrent validity of the Peabody individual achievement test o The Training School Bulletin, 1974, 70, 221-223 0 ~ De Laurier, AoMo An investigation of the effect of Adlerian parent study groups upon children ' s reading achievement . Unpublished doctoral dissertation , University of Oregon, 1975 . Dreikurs, Ro The challenge of parenthood o New York : Hawthorn Books, 1958. Dreikurs, Ro & Soltz, Vo Children: the challenge . New York: Hawthorn Books, 1964 0 Dunn, L.M o Expanded manual for Peabody picture vocabulary test . Circle Pines, Minnesot a : American Guidance Service, Inc e, 1965 0 Dunn, LoMo & Markwardt, FoC. Peabody individual achievement test o Circle Pines, Minnesota: American Guidance Service, Inc e , 1970 . Frazier, Fo & Matthes, WoA. Parent education: a comparison of Adlerian and behavioral approaches o Elementary School Guidance and Counseling, 1975, ~' 31-38. Freeman, C.W . Adlerian mother study groups: effects on attitudes and behavior. Journal of Individual Psychology, 1975, ~' 37- 49 . French, J oLo PIAT o In O. Ko Buros (Ed a), The seventh mental measurements yearbook o Highland Park, NJ: Gryphon Press, 1972 . 53 Randolph, D.L . An empirical system for validating teacher or parent application of Adlerian psychological methods . Southern Journal of Educational Research, 1978, ~. 81-85. Raskin, L.M . , Stuart, I . O. & Black, K. N. Relation-ships between the Peabody picture vocabulary test and the Slosson intelligence test in pre-school and third-grade children. Psychology in the Schools, 1974, !!_, 66-68. Vandette, J . Application of Adlerian principles to speech therapy . Journal of Individual Psychology, 1964, ~. 213-218 . 54 

Effects of Adlerian Parent Consultation on the Academic Achievement of Kindergarten Children

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Effects of Adlerian Parent Consultation on the Academic Achievement of Kindergarten Children

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