Parent-Adolescent Relationship Enhancement Training: A Response to Adolescents Risk Behaviors in Kerala, India

Adolescence is the developmental period of transition from childhood to adulthood and involves biological, cognitive and socio-emotional changes. The reaction and stimulus adolescents receive from parents strongly influence the adolescents' behaviors. Aggression, rule breaking, and self-injurious behaviors are common among adolescents aged 12-16. Enhancing parent-adolescent relationship with secure attachment helps adolescents to reduce risky behaviors. This study is an attempt to develop and assess the effectiveness of Parent-Adolescent Relationship Enhancement Training (PARET) in reducing adolescent risk behaviors by enhancing parent-adolescent relationship between parents and adolescents in Kerala, India. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase1: the development of PARET, and Phase II: the assessment of the effectiveness of the PARET employing a true experimental research method. A total of 40 adolescents and their parents were randomly assigned to both control and experimental groups. The data analysis was done utilizing mean scores, independent sample t- test, paired sample statistics, and Cohen's d. The pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group showed significant differences (p=0.000) at 0.05 levels and the scores of the control group and experimental groups showed significant differences (p=0.000) in all dependent variables in the post test. The result of the study reveals the effectiveness of the PARET as a significant influence in enhancing parent-adolescent relationship thereby reducing adolescent risk behaviors.