HHS HealthBeat (April 22, 2009)

Parents Teaming Up

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Parents who work as a team seem to be better than parents who work at cross-purposes – or compete – in helping young kids who might have behavior problems to keep the behavior in line.

Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan of Ohio State University saw that in a study of 92 families with 4-year-old children.

Sullivan and her colleagues got background information from parents and preschool teachers about the kids’ temperaments and behavior. Then the researchers watched the parents and kids in a lab as they worked together on things like building a toy house:

[Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan speaks] ``A warm, cooperative, supportive co-parenting relationship did protect children who are at risk for externalizing behavior problems – things like aggressive behavior, acting out, disobedience.’’ 

The study in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: April, 24 2009