Behavior Checker Research Study Published in Journal of Child and Family Studies

Date: March 30, 2021 | By: Robert Unell

For Immediate Release

For more information, contact:

Bob Unell

913-481-6364

info@raisedwithloveandlimits.org

(March 30, 2021) The study, “Behavior Checker Staff Training for Positive Parenting in Primary Care: Changes in the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Confidence” has been published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies. Authors are Deborah J. Moon, lead investigator, School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh, Stephan J. Lauer, Pediatrics, University of Kansas Medical Center and Barbara C. Unell, Raised with Love and Limits Foundation.

According to the paper’s Abstract, “Behavior Checker® is a multi-component primary care-based parenting intervention, seeking to maximize the utility of primary care in population-based positive parenting promotion. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Behavior Checker® training on pediatric staff’s perceived knowledge, attitude, and confidence in educating parents about positive discipline strategies”.

Highlights of the Study include:

Primary healthcare can be a potential dissemination channel for evidence-based positive discipline strategies.
Educating and training primary care healthcare staff in positive discipline can maximize the utility of primary care in population-based positive parenting promotion.

The paper is available electronically.

Behavior Checker is an online system for managing common behavioral issues, developed by The Raised with Love and Limits Foundation founders Jerry L. Wyckoff, Ph.D., Barbara Unell and Robert Unell. The Behavior Checker training educates pediatric staff about the core skills in managing behavioral issues and teaches them to use digital prescriptions during a phone triage, as well as sick- and well-visits with parents. The purpose of this study was to explore the feasibility of implementing Behavior Checker in a pediatric primary care setting and examine its preliminary effects on increasing pediatric staff’s knowledge and the level of confidence to engage parents in discussions related to managing children’s behaviors, and thereby, increasing their capacity to act as gatekeepers in preventing maltreatment.

According to Dr. Stephen Lauer, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Pediatrics The University of Kansas School of Medicine/The University of Kansas Physicians: “While pediatricians continue to treat ear infections, administer vaccinations and manage complex medical conditions, we are more and more called on to advise parents on their children’s behavioral issues. Almost all parents at some point seek advice about their child’s tantrums, how to manage bedtime or how to approach a child’s inappropriate social or school behavior. For a child’s long-term health and well-being, providing parents with effective advice is every bit as important as writing a prescription for antibiotics. I believe that the behavioral prescriptions offered through Behavior Checker will help parents and their children’s primary care providers manage these common behavioral issues in an effective and systematic way.”

The Raised with Love and Limits Foundation to support the new public health movement of preventing toxic stress in children’s lives to improve their health, learning and behavior by helping parents and caregivers manage children’s common behavioral issues through evidence-based strategies that develop consistent, caring, supportive, protective relationships with children.

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