When Taiwan-based psychologist Trista Juhsin Fu, PhD, first read an article about an APA program that could reduce the risk of child abuse by teaching parenting skills, she knew she needed to learn more.
Fu, an assistant professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei, had worked with children who were suffering from trauma as a result of abuse, and she was hopeful that the program could help halt this cycle. She contacted APA’s Julia da Silva, director of the ACT Raising Safe Kids Program (ACT), and flew to Boston in 2015 for a two-day facilitator training.
The eight-session program has been so successful in Taiwan that many parents say they wish it lasted longer. As they learn what behaviors to expect from their children at different ages, how to control their own emotions and how to envision their children’s futures, parents are sharing stories that are deeply encouraging to Fu.
"People in the groups talk about how they were parented as children, and in some cases their role models were strict and abusive," Fu says. "One father even started repairing the relationship with his own father as a model for his children."
ACT’s international presence has expanded significantly in the last five years as psychologists in Bosnia, Brazil, Ecuador, Greece, Mexico, Portugal and Romania have successfully launched ACT programs in their communities. "I think parents are drawn to it because we are not trying to change their behaviors through lectures and judgments," says da Silva, who created the program in 2001. "We keep parents involved through discussions, role plays and activities using art materials."The program is also affordable, which is important in low-income countries that have limited resources, according to Maria Beatriz Linhares, PhD, an ACT coordinator in Brazil and a psychology professor at the University of São Paulo School of Medicine in Ribeirão Preto. The program is free for parents and the training for facilitators ranges from $350 to $500 in the United States, depending on the location.
Psychologists abroad have also been interested in ACT because it provides an opportunity to conduct research, da Silva says. Through memorandums of agreement with APA’s Violence Prevention Office, university researchers overseas train graduate students to implement the program for their dissertation projects, and these partnerships generate evidence about the program’s effectiveness worldwide.
Evaluation studies from Brazil, Japan, Portugal and Taiwan indicate that the tools parents learn successfully reduce harsh, coercive and punitive parenting practices. "There is also an increase in warm and supportive strategies and in parental monitoring of violent media," says Tasha R. Howe, PhD, a master trainer for the ACT program and author of a recent paper that summarizes the results of these international studies ( Child and Adolescent Mental Health opens in new window, Vol. 22, No. 4, 2017).
Forging new connections
In the ACT program, college professors and professionals who provide educational, social or mental health services to families and children learn how to teach parents and other caregivers about effective parenting strategies.
To implement the program in Taiwan, Fu launched ACT at a university-affiliated elementary school. Later, leaders at a technology company heard about the program and began offering the course as part of the organization’s employee-assistance program. So far, 77 parents have completed the course. One of the common challenges Taiwanese parents express is the difficulty of living in a culture where the opinions of others are valued more highly than their own opinions, Fu says. One mother, for example, shared with her ACT group that she didn’t feel comfortable returning to work after maternity leave because her in-laws would be home with her baby, and she disagreed with their caregiving strategies. Her husband had asked her to comply with them, and she responded by locking herself in a room with the baby.
During the program, the mother received social support and emotional validation from the group facilitator and other members of the group, which decreased her anxiety as a new parent. This support in combination with new problem-solving strategies improved the mother’s relationship with her in-laws, Fu says.
In addition, the program has also recently attracted the attention of Railway Children, a British organization that works with child runaways who are fleeing abuse, neglect and poverty in India, East Africa and the United Kingdom. The director of the East Africa region heard Howe’s presentation about ACT at a conference in London and was eager to see if changing parenting behaviors through ACT could reduce the risk that African children would run away.
"I was nervous because I don’t know about the culture or parenting practices in East Africa, and I didn’t want to perpetuate colonialism by telling the people there how they should interact with their kids," says Howe, a professor at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. "But the director encouraged me to do the training because ACT had been successful in several other non-Western countries."
In late July and early August, Howe trained 55 facilitators in Tanzania. "They were very receptive and excited to learn this information for their own parenting, for their general social welfare work and to bring it to the parents," Howe says. She also witnessed the extreme poverty and lack of employment, health care and child care available in the communities. Given these circumstances, Howe plans to work closely with facilitators to help them implement ACT.
Expanding to Eastern Europe
ACT program coordinators in Bosnia, Croatia and Romania are also seeking local support for the program, but it has been challenging because there still are few resources for social services in the wake of the wars that affected those nations around the turn of the 21st century.
Howe conducted the first ACT training in Croatia in 2014 because she knew the rate of child abuse usually increases during wars. Croatian psychologists Kamea Jaman, PhD, and Dubravka Svilar Blažinić, MSc, presented information about the program to the government, which must approve programs before they can be implemented. In 2017, the government gave them permission to implement ACT; so far, they have trained 15 facilitators. They launched Croatia’s first parent group that same year.
"Imagine a parent living during a war who has lost everything, witnessed atrocities, feels traumatized and has to care for children," Howe says. "The trainings were packed because there is so much interest. Professionals who work with children really see the value of these tools for parents."
To learn more about the ACT program, visit: www.apa.org/act/about .
