The highest rates of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder(CD) are found in low-income welfare families.
The Head Start program is for thecontinued enhancement of services for poor children ages zero to five, and theirfamilies. The parents of the children in the Head Start program are rarely examined. Head Start instead focuses on the academic performance of the involved children. Thearticle, Preventing Conduct Problems in Head Start Children: Strengthening ParentingCompetencies in The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology decides to take adifferent approach. Instead of singling out the child and holding only the childresponsible for their social and academic behavior, they put the responsibility on thefamily, the school as well as the child. Nine centers were chosen from within one large urban Head Start district(representing six school districts) on the basis of their similarity in terms of ethnicminority percentages, teachers qualifications, family service workers qualifications andeducation, number of classrooms, number of children, children’s enrollment age, andlength of Head Start class (4 hr per day).
Another factor was their willingness toparticipate in the study and to be randomly assigned to either the intervention group(PARTNERS), which is supposed to be an early prevention group to prevent thedevelopment of ODD and CD in young children. Or being randomly assigned to theCONTROL group (Head Starts regular curriculum). The Nine Head Start centers were randomly assigned to either groups. This is aplus because the whole center, not just a few classes in the center, is involved in thechosen program.
Also, the centers didnt debate on which program that theyd like toparticipate in. There were more families in the experimental group than in the controlgroup. The Partners or Control program is the independent variable (depending on whichgroup the child is a part of). The childs conduct is the dependent variable. Bibliography:
