Effects of Spirituality on Womens Parenting Sense of Competence

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Effects of Spirituality on Womens Parenting
Sense of Competence

• Chauna Brocht, Bernadette Fackovec, Tiffany
  Hardy, Melissa Kline,
• Mary Olisa, Renee VanMeter and Jessie Walker
• University of Maryland, Baltimore
• School of Social Work
• December 20, 2004

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Introduction
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• 3/03 Census report
• 75,596 Families in America.
• Almost 47 have children under 18 at home.
• Barna Research Archive (2000/2001)
• 3 out of 5 adults (60) say they are deeply
  spiritual.
• A little over 1/3 of adults report to be
  searching for meaning and purpose in life.
• 78 of teens say their parents have a lot of
  influence on their life.

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Background and Significance
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Belskys Process Model of the Determinants of
Parenting
Social Network
Developmental History
Parenting
Child Characteristics
Work
Child Development
Belsky, J. (1984). The determinants of parenting
A process model. Child Development. 55, 83-98.
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Belskys Process Model of the Determinants of
Parenting
Developmental History
Parenting
Personality
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Gibaud-Wallston and Wandersman (1978).
Development and utility of the Parenting Sense of
Competence scale.

• Parenting self-esteem
• Perceived satisfaction and efficacy.
• Parenting self-efficacy
• Expectations of coping.

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• Spirituality
• Spirituality or faith is developed within the
  context of a care-giving relationship during
  childhood (Snider, 2004, p.490).
• Transcendence and interdependence correlation
  between an individuals spirituality level and
  their feelings of being generally alive,
  purposeful, and fulfilled (Ellison, 1983).
• ...who we are and how we know the world and this
  is integral to an education for meaning, social
  justice, character, depth, and wisdom (Tobin,
  2004, p.39).

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Existing Literature

• There is an existing association between
  spirituality, health, illness and well-being
  (Pediatrics, 2003, p.20).
• Greater parenting spirituality leads to more
  cohesive family relationships
• (Bogan, 2004, p. 129).

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• The relationship between parent spirituality and
  parenting of adolescents have consistently
  demonstrated that spirituality was associated
  with positive parenting behaviors and
  parent-adolescent relationship qualities, such as
  increased warmth (Snider, 2004, p.489).

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Gap in Research

• There is little research on the relationship
  between spiritual well-being and parenting
  competence.

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Study Aims

• Investigate the relationship , if any, between
  spirituality and parenting competence.

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Hypothesis

• There is a positive correlation between parenting
  competence and level of spirituality.

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Methods

• Sample
• Measures
• Procedure

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Sample

• Sample of convenience.
• 156 valid surveys.
• The majority of the respondents were Caucasian,
  married, and between the ages of 18 to 68 (Mean
  age 41 years).

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Measures

• Demographic questions.
• Alcohol use questions and childhood experience
  questions.
• Parenting Sense of Competence (PSOC).
• Spiritual Well - Being (SWB) Scale.

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Parenting Sense of Competence (PSOC)
Gibaud-Walston Wandersman, 1978

• The PSOC scale has 2 sub-scales
• Skills/Knowledge - measures the perception of the
  degree to which a parent believes he or she has
  acquired the skills and understanding to be a
  good parent.
• Valuing/Comfort - assesses the degree to which a
  parent is comfortable in the parenting role and
  the value they place upon that role.

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PSOC

• 17 statements to which the respondent can
  indicate their degree of agreement on a given
  six-point scale that spans from strongly agree
  (1) to strongly disagree (6).
• Internal consistency reliability for both
  subscales convergent and discriminant validity.
• Originally the PSOC scale was intended for use
  with parents of young children.
• Utility of PSOC with parents of older children
  proven effective scale used for parents of
  children of all ages.

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Spiritual Well-Being (SWB)Ellison, 1983

• The SWB scale has 2 sub-scales
• Religious Well- Being (RWB) Scale well- being
  in relation to God
• (Ellison, 1983, p.331).
• Existential Well Being (EWB) Scale a sense of
  life-purpose and satisfaction, with no reference
  to anything specifically religious (Ellison,
  1983, p.331).

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SWB

• 20 brief statements to which the respondent can
  indicate their degree of agreement on a given
  six-point scale, spanning from strongly agree (1)
  to strongly disagree (6).
• High reliability and good face validity.
• Some recent concerns regarding psychometric
  properties
• Multi-denominational?
• More complex in nature?

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Procedure

• Part of a larger study.
• 22 graduate students Pilot -tested the survey.
• The survey was submitted to the Institutional
  Review Board (IRB) and received an exemption.
• Students administered the survey and input
  collected data into SPSS 11.0 shell.
• Students cleaned the data as a class.
• Statistical tests were run in SPSS 11.0 to obtain
  mean scores, standard deviations, and Pearsons
  r2 value.

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Results
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Mean Scores

• Parenting Sense of Competence (PSOC)
• Global score mean 45.09.
• The Spiritual Well- Being (SWB)
• Global score mean 43.58.

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Standard Deviation

• Parenting Sense of Competence (PSOC)
• standard deviation 9.883.
• Spiritual Well-Being (SWB)
• standard deviation 17.038.

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Pearsons r Test

• The correlation between Parenting Sense of
  Competence (PSOC) and Spiritual Well-Being (SWB)
  indicates that r .261.
• This result is significant at the .01 level with
  a 2 tailed test.

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Discussion
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Discussion

• Results of study support the research
  hypothesis.
• There is a positive correlation between level of
  spirituality and a parents sense of
  competency.
• No indication of causation.

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Strengths

• Reliability and validity of PSOC scale and SWB
  scale were pre-established.
• PSOC scale determined useful with parents of
  older children.
• Thorough pilot-testing resulted in invaluable
  feedback.

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Limitations

• Sensitive nature of survey questions.
• Large number of incomplete and invalid surveys.
• Sample was not representative of general
  population.

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Implications

• Further research
• Is age a factor?
• Include fathers and guardians.
• Child specific.
• Social Work Practice
• Holistic approach to client assessment and
  interventions.
• Additional parenting interventions and clinical
  strategies.

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• Questions?

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Effects of Spirituality on Womens Parenting
Sense of Competence

• Chauna Brocht, Bernadette Fackovec, Tiffany
  Hardy, Melissa Kline,
• Mary Olisa, Renee VanMeter and Jessie Walker
• University of Maryland, Baltimore
• School of Social Work
• December 20, 2004