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Both family service agencies and child guidance clinics have adopted a group approach in helping families with parent-child relationship problems. The group may supplement the individual casework service; often, however, this may be the only form of help offered a family. The supportive service agencies have developed two different kinds of programs employing a group approach: family-life education programs and group counseling or group treatment programs.
Family life educationis defined by the FSAA as "a process by which people are helped through group discussion to broaden their understanding of family relationships. The aim of family life education is the prevention of unhappy family relationships and the strengthening and enrichment of family life." The family life education program of family service agencies is implemented through lectures by agency social workers to community groups, leadership of parent discussion groups, formal institutes on child care and parent-child relationships, and participation in radio and television programs on family life education The group counseling service is frequently difficult to distinguish from the ongoing family-life education program. Both kinds of groups consist of limited numbers of parents who come together with some regularity to discuss parent child relationship problems with the help of a skilled leader provided by the agency.
The counseling groups are viewed by the agency "as a special controlled environment which offers a corrective emotional experience-a re-education living experience to the client" (Conrad, 1959, p. 124). The family life education programs have an educational rather than therapeutic function, so that content and discussion emphasize normal family relationships and rational procedures in dealing with normal problem situations. Group counseling services, unlike parent education services, seek to dissolve pathology in the parent-child relationship.
Child guidance clinics have developed family life education programs designed to introduce groups of parents to the use of behavioral approaches. Although the success of these programs has been limited, the definite, precise procedures give the parents a sense of control and relief from feelings of hopelessness about their children's disturbing behavior (Rose, 1972, 1977).
Family service agencies offer group education programs to families who are not having any difficulty but who want to learn procedures for more effective parenting to prevent problems from developing. Group education programs are designed as preventive interventions. Their objective is to teach parents about child development and child behavior so as to enable them to do a more effective job of parenting.
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