Examining the Efficacy of Psycho-Educational Program for Mothers on Mothers' Perception of Child Education Competence

Though parental efficacy is emphasized in much admirable research, very few social programs have been assessed. Parenting is a potential protective or risk factor for the development of the child and predicts outcomes related to the child’s developmental processes. In this study, the effect of a psychoeducation program on the childhood education efficacy perceptions of mothers was examined. The study is a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test and post-test control group. 20 mothers with primary school children residing in Turkey, 10 in the experimental group and 10 in the control group, participated in the research. Each mother in the experiment group completed a psychoeducation program comprising 10 sessions lasting 50 minutes. Prior to the psycho-education, it was determined that there was no significant difference between the scores of the experimental and control groups obtained from the Child Education Efficiency Scale (CEES) as well as the Bringing Responsibility, Communication-Interaction, Knowing the Child, Developing the Child, and Guiding the Child subscales. The result of the research revealed that the experimental group had significantly higher scores for the Child Education Efficiency Scale and all subscales after receiving psychoeducation compared to before the training. On the other hand, there was no significant difference between the scores of the control group from the CEES or any subscales before and after psychoeducation. In addition, after psychoeducation, the scores of the experimental group were significantly higher for the CEES and Bringing Responsibility, Communication-Interaction, and Developing the Child subscales compared to the control group. There was no significant difference in the Guiding the Child, Knowing the Child subscales. The results indicate that the efficacy levels of mothers can be increased and explain the probable mechanisms that may affect efficacy.