Parent‐Child Interaction Therapy for Puerto Rican Preschool Children with ADHD and Behavior Problems: A Pilot Efficacy Study

Abstract

This study evaluates the initial efficacy of the Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for Puerto Rican preschool children aged 4-6 years with a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), combined or predominantly hyperactive type, and significant behavior problems. Thirty-two families were randomly assigned to PCIT (n = 20) or a 3.5-month waiting-list condition (WL; n = 12). Participants from both groups completed pretreatment and posttreatment assessments. Outcome measures included child's ADHD symptoms and behavior problems, parent or family functioning, and parents' satisfaction with treatment. ANCOVAs with pretreatment measures entered as covariates were significant for all posttreatment outcomes, except mother's depression, and in the expected direction (p < .01). Mothers reported a highly significant reduction in pretreatment hyperactivity and inattention and less aggressive and oppositional-defiant behaviors, conduct problems assessed as problematic, parenting stress associated with their child's behavior, and an increase in the use of adequate parenting practices. For the WL group, there were no clinically significant changes in any measure. Treatment gains obtained after treatment were maintained at a 3.5-month follow-up assessment. PCIT seems to be an efficacious intervention for Puerto Rican families who have young children with significant behavior problems.

Parent-Implemented Behavioral Interventions for Challenging Behavior of Young Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Review of Effective Approaches

“…Treatment integrity data that demonstrated that parents conducted interventions in an accurate way as taught were available in only five studies (Coolican et al, 2010;Fernandez et al, 2011;Kuhn et al, 2003;Matos et al, 2009;Symon, 2005). The studies reported satisfactory levels of accuracy in parent-implemented interventions.…”

“…Based on the definition, all selected studies in this review used a specific BPT since they taught parents to use behavioral strategies as an intervention agent, focusing on changing contingencies related to children's challenging behavior. The main strategies of parentimplemented intervention that each study adopted were behavioral; however, some of the reviewed studies (e.g., Fernandez et al, 2011;Matos et al, 2009;Nixon et al, 2004;Webster-Stratton et al, 2004) integrated a behavioral approach with the relationship enhancement approach to improve the parent-child relationship. Such interventions were based on the assumption that challenging behavior was maintained by contingencies of parent-child.…”

“…Boy participants outnumbered girls with the exception of three studies (Fossum et al, 2009;Matos et al, 2009;Nixon et al, 2004) in which no information about the participants' gender was available (see Table 1). As for the diagnosis of the participants, eight studies targeted children whose major disability was ASD, seven studies were conducted on children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and the other seven studies included children with other developmental disabilities such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and mental retardation.…”

The culturally-adapted Early Pathways program for young Latino children in poverty: A randomized controlled trial.

“…While each of these programs has reported success with small portions of Latino populations, only a few have fully adapted a PCT program for Latino families and examined the effects of cultural modifications. Initial studies of culturally-adapted PCIT programs found support for such treatment among Puerto Rican and Mexican American families (Matos, Bauermeister, & Bernal, 2009;McCabe & Yeh, 2009). In addition, fairly successful outcomes have been found for less Early Pathways for Young Latino Children in Poverty 5 well-known program adaptations, such as Parenting Our Children to Excellence (PACE; Dumas, Arriaga, Moreland-Begle, & Longoria, 2011) and Community Parent Education (COPE; Lakes et al, 2009).…”

The development and evaluation of a natural helpers' training program to increase the engagement of urban, Latina/o families in parent-child interaction therapy

“…The program is conducted in two phases, the Child-Directed Interaction (CDI) phase is focused on enhancing the parent-child relationship, and the Parent-Directed Interaction (PDI) phase is focused on effective discipline practices (Eyberg & Funderburk, 2011). PCIT has demonstrated efficacy with Mexican-Americans (McCabe & Yeh, 2009) and Puerto Ricans (Matos, Bauermeister, & Bernal, 2009), and Latina/o parents generally react favorably to its core components .…”