Parent Education Program

Parent Education Program
Name
Institution
Due Date
Parent Education Program
Abstract
The study focuses on developing a parent education program for Latinos in the American context. The Latinos face various challenges, especially the single Latino immigrant mothers that require solutions by enacting appropriate programs. The program objectives include: first to help parents find resources such as housing, healthcare, ELL classes, jobs, and helping with immigration paperwork if needed. Secondly, to educate and prepare parents for the challenges their children may face as newcomers to this country. Thirdly, to educate parents about the effects of technology and the importance of healthy lifestyle choices and taking care of one’s mental and spiritual health. Lastly, to encourage the family to navigate issues they are facing together and consistently talk about the up and downs of their daily life. The paper will provide a brief introduction that will explain the livelihood of single mothers. Also, it will have a summary of the literature review that analyzes other research on the topic of the plan for four curriculum sessions using the National Extension Parent Education Model (NEPEM) and, finally, the conclusion.
Introduction
The concept of every parent education program in an ideal world requires effective matching of the objectives alongside foundational constructs to the various interests, motivations, and demographics of the affected families. The issue of unlimited funding makes designing programs to include various aspects of the population such as skills, social networks, levels of education, personalities, styles of learning alongside developments that encompass cultural heritage (Alacevich & Nicodemo, 2019). However, in most instances, parents always encounter constraints in the form of time and finances, making it difficult for them to create individualized curricula capable of addressing their divergent needs and the intended population they serve. This study provides one of the approaches to the dilemma faced by parents of immigrant families by giving an outline that could help their children succeed in a foreign country. The design alongside developmental methods applicable in the creation of the program focuses on providing an adaptable template that points towards parent education program development applicable to the immigrant population, as discussed in the IPP study.
Key Concepts from IPP
The study focuses on women as the most vulnerable group among such immigrants (Alacevich and Nicodemo, 2019). This is due to the family responsibilities they are left with after the departure of fathers. The study focuses on Latino mothers who opt to migrate to America in search of greener pastures. Despite the decision being attractive, the repercussions based on the reality of settling in a foreign country at times prove overwhelming. The difficulties include trying to navigate through in search of the family’s daily bread as well as hiding from deportation by the state government. The competition within the work field that favors men provides the grounds that make employers exploit the girl child (Olcon & Gulbas, 2018). At times, such a level of desperation forces mothers to join bad groups associated with criminal activities and drug trafficking. Settling in new environments drains parents emotionally because they have to cope with new things such as friends, new school, new neighbors, and forget about their old life (Griffin, 2018). Such a huge burden goes to the mothers who have to counsel them each step of the way to ensure they are comfortable. This situation makes the mothers concentrate on the family, forgetting they also need someone to walk with them in their new life.
Similarly, children of the immigrants are also subject to a lack of fatherhood, therefore, struggle with an identity crisis. Such scenarios, when not addressed, lead to depressive moments. However, the creation of empowerment programs focusing on single mothers helps equip them with necessary competitive skills conveying their potential in the job market. Further, the introduction of a favorable culture, such as the Latino culture unit within the American curriculum, ensures tolerance, therefore reducing cases of bullying (Olcon & Gulbas, 2018).
The issues have confronted various generations of immigrants in America since the immigration reform in 1965 that opened the door for many new immigrants whose cultures and beliefs differ from the majority American culture (Kielsgaard et al., 2018). Such societal discord calls for the development of culturally sensitive parent education programs that suit Latino immigrant families. Admittedly, they help expand the scope of the interpretation of parenting competencies that serve the process of rearing children. The programs are key in strengthening cultural diversity rather than denying their existence, guaranteeing extensive reflection of different immigrants’ unique values and beliefs. The program entails including some critically important elements, such as providing help on how to cope with discriminative activities alongside misconceptions from the mainstream culture. The existing programs were simply translated from the mainstream culture to suit the immigrant’s group native language, focusing on that immigrants would share into the American parenting lessons.
However, the aspect of simply translating these programs may not necessarily be effective owing to differing goals. For instance, the mainstream objective may be building parent support networks alongside encouraging open dialogue between child and parents. Despite being appropriate for the majority of American families, they may serve direct opposition to the goals of some cultural groups. The American culture on direct parent-child communication may look dishonoring and even uncomfortable (Griffin, 2018). Therefore, such a program may instead diminish an immigrant’s parent’s sense of power and authority, owing to contradiction to their traditional values. Due to the costs and tasks involved, different programs developed according to culture are rare. Such a perspective has called on this study to create a creative and culture-specific parent education program capable of building and strengthening family ties at minimal costs.
There are certain shared values across the cultures that include self-discipline, filial piety, group orientation, parental authority, and family harmony. These values make the parents share common if not similar challenges in their quest to raise children in the United States (Oliveira, 2017). The children growing up in such environments as the United States were taught to subscribe to values such as sacrificing their own personal interest for the greater good of the collective family or clan, they were also taught to be modest community members for the purposes of achieving virtue and respect from other corners of the society. The expectations are that they manage their temper and delay gratification, knowing when to be assertive. Maintaining these values, such as loyalty and obedience, demands overcoming the concepts of self-expression, assertiveness, and independence.
Plan for 4 Curriculum Sessions
Outline for the four Sessions
Session 1
Subtheme: Minimizing the existing conflicts between parents and adolescent teenagers
Learning objectives:
* Firm foundations on cultural values, norms, beliefs, and Latinos traditional practices
* Blending mandatory elements of the native culture with different unfamiliar aspects of the Latinos
Key question: What are some of the extensive examples of good personal parental care?
Teaching activities and methods: Storytelling, small group discussions
Materials and Equipment: Videotapes, writing materials for the scripts
Timing of each section: 30 minutes
Evaluation: Parents feel empowered on their parental knowledge and instincts concerning other society members
Session 2
Subtheme: Identifying and enforcing limits in modeling appropriate behavior patterns
Learning objectives:
* Enforcing limits in consideration of the children freedom
* The need for teaching various foundational values
* The importance of teaching children problem-solving skills
Key question: What are the indications of proper and failed parental guidance towards children?
Teaching activities and methods: Storytelling, small group discussions, facilitation
Materials and Equipment: Videotapes, writing materials for the scripts
Timing of each section: 30 minutes
Evaluation: Requires establishment of attainable limits
Session 3
Subtheme: Identifying core issues from the stories from the perspective of the parents and teenagers
Learning objectives:
* Potential solutions in line with the traditional American values
* Different perspectives on family conflicts within Latino homes
Key question: What are some of the extensive examples of good personal parental care?
Teaching activities and methods: Storytelling, small group discussions, facilitation
Materials and Equipment: Videotapes, writing materials for the scripts
Timing of each section: 30 minutes
Evaluation: Parents empowered to develop bicultural means of thinking, focusing on parental solutions emerging from the research stories
Session 4
Subtheme: Nurturing as a means of attending to children’s needs, building positive relationships, and relating with constant love messages
Learning objectives:
* The need for listening and attending to their feelings as well as ideas
* The aspect of teaching children the art of kindness and compassion
* The need for recognizing and rewarding positive behaviors
Key question: What are the indications of good parenting that appropriately utilize the concept of nurture?
Teaching activities and methods: Storytelling, small group discussions, facilitation
Materials and Equipment: Videotapes, writing materials for the scripts
Timing of each section: 30 minutes
Evaluation: The extent of connection to family history alongside cultural values
Curriculum of Helping Youth Program
The goal of such a program helps create a culturally specific parent education program for Latino immigrant families. The program addresses as well as minimizes the existing conflicts between parents and adolescent teenagers (Troilo, 2020). From the inception stages, the goal was to design what would encompass the entire family, with a firm foundation on cultural values, norms, beliefs, and Latinos’ traditional practices. The assumption, in this case, was that the efficient enculturation would incorporate the process of blending mandatory elements of the native culture with different unfamiliar aspects of the Latinos. The knowledge that Latino parents at times tend to feel some form of alienation owing to immigration alongside mistrust of the systems upon disclosure of family problems called for the creation of a means that would ensure that parents feel empowered on their parental knowledge and instincts concerning other society members. The process helped create an inclusive atmosphere where nobody felt left behind, therefore, granting parents the freedom of being the authorities and each other’s support system (Chapman & Schramm, 2018).
The program comprised different family stories revealing existing conflicts between parents and their teenagers alongside other parental dilemmas. The stories created provide the central themes obtained from facilitated discussions amongst the focus groups of parents identifying core issues from the stories as per the perspective of the parties involved (parents and adolescents). Equally, there is the provision of potential solutions in line with the traditional American values. These stories provide different perspectives on family conflicts within Latino homes; such an approach removes the aspect of feeling shame in admitting individual family conflicts while at the same time exploring real solutions towards difficulties encountered in parenting (Troilo, 2020).
The parents were empowered to develop bicultural means of thinking, focusing on parental solutions emerging from the research stories. Additionally, the curriculum included a facilitator guide alongside videotape for English and Latino family stories. Such a program focuses on a high level of flexibility that could easily be adapted for diverse groups and situations. The inclusion of an experienced facilitator is key in ensuring the curriculum’s success. However, in some instances, the utilization of the program does not require the position of facilitator training.
Development process
The process of developing such a research-based prevention program focusing on culturally specified groups requires more time, planning, and coordination to ensure full adaptation to the existing programs for such new populations as the Latinos. Subsequently, the following repres...