Head Start Parents in Participant Groups

Abstract

Sensitivity training groups have rarely been conducted with lowincome people. A modification of the laboratory training method, here called the "participant group method," was used with lowincome parents of Head Start children to demonstrate under what conditions participant groups might be helpful to parents and their children. Eight groups met twice a week for eight weeks to help parents increase their children's language skills or to help them with their child-rearing problems. Parent trainers worked in pairs, which included a mother from the community. Couples were invited to some groups; only mothers to other groups. Most groups succeeded in engaging the parents' participation in child-rearing or related discussions. Judged on the basis of attendance and group process data, the participant group method seems an effective vehicle for directly delivering community clinical-psychological and educational services to low-income parents of preschool children.