THE EFFECTS OF THE STEP PROGRAM ON MOTHERS FROM DIFFERENT SOCIO-ECONOMIC LEVELS

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) program in changing mothers and their target children's perceptions of behavior with participants from two socioeconomic (SES) levels, low to lower middle and middle to upper middle. The STEP program incorporates Adlerian principles with communication techniques, and emphasizes democratic principles of child rearing. The dependent variables for the study were mothers' perceptions of their target child's behavior, mothers' attitudes toward their target child's rights and liberties, and target children's perceptions of their mothers behaviors.;Instruments used for data collection included Adlerian Parental Assessment of Child Behavior Scale, Attitude Toward the Freedom of Children Scale--II, and the Parent Behavior Inventory. In addition, participants filled out a personal data questionnaire and kept a daily diary by following the directions from a Critical Incidents Technique.;Participants for the study consisted of volunteer mothers and their target children, ages seven to thirteen, from the two general SES levels. An equal number of mothers from each SES level were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The mothers selected the target children for the groups.;The personal data information was analyzed according to status index guidelines verifying that two distinct socioeconomic groups were represented. A pre-post control group design was used for the study and a one-way analysis of covariance to test Hypotheses I through VI, a Critical Incidents Technique analysis to test Hypothesis VII.;The one-way ANCOVA showed that STEP was significantly effective in changing the experimental middle to upper middle SES mothers' perceptions of their target children's behavior (F = 7.28) but not significant for the low to lower middle SES group (F = .60). The one-way ANCOVA showed that STEP was not significantly effective in changing attitudes toward the freedom of children for any mothers' groups (F = 2.20 and .01, respectively).;On the Parent Behavior Inventory, ANCOVA revealed that STEP was significantly effective according to middle to upper middle target children's perceptions of parents on factors of positive evaluation (F = 5.47) and significantly effective according to low to lower middle SES target children's perceptions of parents on the factor of Nagging and Intimidation (F = 5.11).;The data gathered from experimental mothers' diaries indicated that middle and upper middle SES mothers were more aware of their feelings and more aware of alternative ways of relating to their target children than low to lower middle SES mothers. (Group percentage scores were 80.5% and 56% respectively.).