The Parent Hope Project
After embarking on her doctoral research into parent’s experience of adolescent mental health treatment, Dr. Brown discovered:
- a strong relationship between parents’ hope and sense of agency/self-efficacy.
Parents who remained more passive in expecting expert helpers to fix their child experience reduced hope months after finishing the program. Conversely, when parents positively changed their interaction with their children, they felt a more sustained hopefulness. These findings (Brown, 2018) support the theory that if parents are actively involved in changing themselves as part of their child’s treatment, they experience increased hope and effectiveness in contributing to their child’s recovery.
Hearing of the triumphs and challenges experienced by clinicians and families of struggling children, Dr. Brown was inspired to translate Bowen’s Systems Theory into a practical and supportive program for parents.