Teaching Mothers Through Videotape Modeling to Change Their Children's Behavior

Abstract

Thirty-five mothers and their children age 3–5 were randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a waiting-list control group. The children's baseline behaviors were obtained through videotapes of children playing with their mothers. Mothers in the experimental group attended a series of four weekly 2-hour videotape modeling sessions. At the end of treatment, results showed a significant decrease in children's negative affect behaviors and submissive behaviors and a significant increase in children's positive affect behaviors when the experimental group of children was compared with the control group. Also, results showed that mothers in the experimental group reported significantly fewer and less intense behavior problems than the control group mothers. Two months later, follow-up assessment indicated that the children's behaviors continued to improve. The study was subsequently replicated with the control group. Results suggest that education of groups of parents by a videotape modeling program has powerful secondary effects in changing children's behaviors.