Effects of education given to parents of adolescents with behaviour disorders on parents' attitude and their mental health, and adolescent behaviours

Purpose: This study aimed to implement Group Teen Triple P in order to determine the potential needs of parents for a parent education program who had adolescent children with behavior problems, and to evaluate its efficiency.Method: This study consisted of descriptive qualitative and experimental (randomized controlled) steps. The qualitative step included a sample of 15 parents chosen with purposive sampling and the data were evaluated with thematic analysis method. The interventional step included a sample of 76 parents, 38 in test group and 38 in control group, chosen with block randomization method. The study data were collected with a Sociodemographic Data Collection Form, the Parent Attitude Scale (PAS), the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GSA-12), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the Conflict Behaviour Questionnaire, and the Parent Satisfaction Questionnaire. The test group participated in Group Teen Triple P for eight weeks. The study data were collected both right after the implementation and 3 months after the implementation of the program. The study data were evaluated with variance analysis, t test, chi-square analysis.Findings: In light of the results, three main themes were found in the qualitative steps, defining behavior problems, coping with these problems and suggestions for their needs of education. As for the interventional step, it was further noted that Group Teen Triple P failed to achieve any changes in parents' attitudes, but the program proved quite useful in improving their ental health. It was also added that the program helped to reduce behavior problems and enabled parents to experience relatively less conflicts with their adolescent children.Conclusions: It was concluded according to the results of the qualitative steps that parent education programs, whether specially designed for Turkey or tested with new groups in future, should be evaluated considering the results of this study. It was also suggested in the interventional step that Group Teen Triple P be extensively used.