Positive reinforcement parenting intervention in Chinese families

This study will experimentally test the effects of a two-week intervention on disruptive behaviour of 3-8-year-old Chinese children. Parents in the experimental condition will receive a video-call introducing the use of praise to reinforce positive behaviour and complete two-week daily dairy assignments reflecting on children’s positive behaviours and parental use of praise. Parents in the control condition will not receive the video-call, and their daily dairy assignment will only include reflections on children’s positive behaviours. Decreases in children’s disruptive behaviour, coercive parent-child interaction cycles, child emotional problems, parental mental health problems (depression, anxiety, and stress), and increases in child self-esteem, parental warmth, and parental self-efficacy are expected. The intervention is expected to be more effective for parents who, at the start of the intervention, find the positive reinforcement a more acceptable parenting technique.

I hypothesize that the intervention will reduce children’s disruptive behaviour, coercive parent-child coercive cycles, child emotional problems, parental health problems (depression, anxiety, and stress), and improve child self-esteem, parental warmth, and parental self-efficacy. Moreover, I hypothesize that the intervention will be more effective in families where parents find the positive reinforcement component more acceptable.

T0 = pretest
T1 = posttest (2 weeks after pretest)
T2 = follow-up test (4 weeks after pretest)

Parents in the intervention group will receive a video-call from the researchers introducing parental praise and complete daily diary assignments reflecting on children’s positive behaviours and praise for two weeks. The control group will have no video-call; they complete daily diary assignments for two weeks only reflecting on children's positive behaviours.