Parent Effectiveness Training: A Review
Parent Effectiveness Training (PET) has become a popular approach for educating parents in child-rearing practices. PET is based, in part, upon the teachings of Carl Rogers and trains parents in listening techniques, communication skills, and child-parent problem solving. This paper summarizes and critically evaluates the research literature regarding the effects of PET on parents and their children. The existing research was judged by the authors as limited in scope and inadequate in design. Specifically problems regarding random assignment of subjects to groups, a relative lack of objective behavioral measures, inappropriate statistical methods, absent or inappropriate control conditions, and a lack of follow ups typify the research. Over-all, the effectiveness of PET as a prevention or intervention strategy was not supported.