New Study Validates Positive Family Impact Of Kids' Turn Services

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 01 Oct 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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Kids' Turn (KT,) a San Francisco-based non-profit organization announced results of a landmark study by Dr. Jeffrey Cookson, Department of Psychology at San Francisco State University.

In the study, conducted over four years, Dr. Cookson validated the impact of the Kids' Turn curricula (The Kids' Turn Way), which includes a six-week course for children and parents focused on reducing the negative impact of parental separation. Attending the Kids' Turn workshop resulted in a significant decrease in parent conflict and parental alienation and a significant decrease in the children's internalizing behavior problems.

Dr. Cookson evaluated behaviors of a sample of parents and children before and after attending Kids' Turn workshops. According to the study, "Overall, our results indicate that the Kids' Turn program has demonstrated the ability to improve the lives of parents and their children after a divorce. For parents, there is a decrease in parental conflicts and improvement in parent functioning (i.e., lower anxiety and depression). For children, there is lower anxiety and overall improvement in mental health. That we found change behaviors following participation in a community based program suggests that families will benefit from participation in the Kids' Turn multiple session group. Given that divorce is one of the most difficult times that both parents and their children face and that the Kids' Turn program has demonstrated the ability to help these families recover from the devastation, we are hopeful that further attention will be paid to offering these services in multiple communities."

In making the announcement, Claire Barnes, Kids' Turn executive director said, "The study unequivocally validates the work we are doing to increase hope and optimism of children of families going through parental separation. The negative impact that parental separation has on individual children and society has reached epidemic proportions. Children often find themselves caught in the middle of parental disputes. The tangential relationships between parental separation and childhood difficulties (e.g., obesity, developmental, academic, social, psychological problems, etc.) are well proven. Kids' Turn takes children out of the middle of parental struggles and puts them at the center of family healing and resolution through a curriculum that teaches children a variety of coping skills and provides parents with appropriate parenting and conflict reduction skills."

Kids' Turn provides an opportunity for families facing parental separation to move forward with hope and optimism, reducing conflict and its negative effects. Children often find themselves in the middle of parental conflict. Employing the Kids' Turn Way puts kids at the center of family healing and resolution and takes children out of the middle of parental struggles. Kids' Turn is the only organization where the entire family participates in a comprehensive program that helps children develop essential coping skills and gives adults the critical parenting skills they need to support their children through family reconfiguration.

For further information on the study, including how to register for workshops in five Bay Area Counties, please go to http://www.kidsturn.org or write Kids' Turn, 55 New Montgomery, Suite 500 San Francisco, CA 94105-3431.

Source
Kids' Turn

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