A first-level evaluation of a family intervention for adolescent social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Abstract

A total of 93 adolescents aged 11-17 years (M = 14.64, SD = 1.31; 39% male) and their parents took part in the study. The study used a quasi-experimental One-Group Pretest-Posttest design to assess change from pre- to post-intervention using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the McMaster General Functioning Scale, Goal Attainment, Parent Stress Scale and the Kansas Parenting Satisfaction Scale. Both parent- and adolescent-rated goal attainment and general family functioning improved from pre- to post-intervention. Parents also rated their satisfaction with parenting as having significantly improved. Adolescent-rated emotional difficulties significantly improved for the overall sample and parent-rated child total difficulties for female adolescents significantly improved from pre-test to post-test. Parents of female adolescents also reported a significant drop in parental stress. These findings indicate that the WTOPPAP may be an effective intervention for adolescents with SEBD, particularly females, and their parents. Further implications are discussed.

Parents Plus Systemic, Solution‐Focused Parent Training Programs: Description, Review of the Evidence Base, and Meta‐Analysis

“…Four studies of the PP Adolescents Program have been conducted. In two of these adolescents attended the Working Things Out Program, while their parents concurrently attended the PP Adolescents Program (Rickard et al., ; Wynne, Brosnan, Doyle, Kenny, & Sharry, ). There were also conjoint family sessions held midway through these programs and at the end of treatment.…”

“…In a single group outcome study in public health service child and adolescent mental health clinics, Wynne et al. () evaluated the combined effectiveness of the PP Adolescents Program and the Working Things Out Program for families of adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders and emotional disorders. After treatment, there was significant improvement on a range of parent‐ and adolescent‐completed measures of adjustment.…”

“…There were also conjoint family sessions held midway through these programs and at the end of treatment. Two studies were run in child and adolescent mental health clinics with families of adolescents with psychological disorders (Beattie, O'Donohoe, Guerin, & Fitzpatrick, 2011;Wynne et al, 2016), and two were conducted in schools (Nitsch et al, 2015;. In a nonrandomized controlled trial of families of adolescents with disruptive behavior disorders, emotional disorders, and developmental disabilities attending mental health clinics at two Dublin university hospitals, found that compared with the treatment as usual control group, after treatment the PP Adolescent Program group showed significantly greater improvement on a range of measures, with gains maintained at follow-up.…”

Parental Stress Scale: Validation study with a Portuguese population of parents of children from 3 to 10 years old

“…It may contribute to defining the type of intervention and services that will be most helpful to the child and the family, to determine extraneous variables that may affect the child during treatment and also to measure intervention effectiveness both during and after treatment (Lessenberry and Rehfeldt, 2004). The Parental Stress Scale (PSS) developed by Berry and Jones (1995) has been widely used to assess change after parent and/or family intervention programmes for parents of children and adolescents with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and/or developmental disabilities (Bazzano et al, 2015; Caldwell et al, 2007; Coughlin et al, 2009; Griffin et al, 2010; Rickard et al, 2016; Tellegen and Sanders, 2014; Wynne et al, 2016).…”

Feasibility and acceptability of a multicomponent, group psychological intervention for adolescents with psychosocial distress in public schools of Pakistan: a feasibility cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT)

“…Involvement of parents in the management of emotional problems of adolescents is one of the most empirically supported intervention strategies [ 56 ]. A key component of EASE intervention was to help parents/caregivers improve active listening skills and emotion identification in themselves and in their children; increasing the quality time spent with their children, an increase in praise given to their children and increased implementation of self-care strategies by parents/caregivers.…”