Parent training to reduce problem behaviors over the transition to high school: Tests of indirect effects through improved emotion regulation skills

Abstract

Adolescent problem behaviors are costly for individuals and society. Promoting the self-regulatory functioning of youth may help prevent the development of such behaviors. Parent-training and family intervention programs have been shown to improve child and adolescent self-regulation. This study helps fill gaps in knowledge by testing for indirect effects of the Common Sense Parenting® (CSP) program on reduced substance use, conduct problems, and school suspensions through previously identified short-term improvements in parents’ reports of their children’s emotion regulation skills. Over two cohorts, 321 low income families of 8th graders were enrolled and randomly assigned to either the standard CSP program, an adapted CSP Plus program, or a minimal-contact control condition. Pretest, posttest, 1-year follow-up, and 2-year follow-up survey assessments were completed by parents and students with 94% retention. Intent-to-treat multivariate path analyses were conducted. Neither intervention had statistically significant total effects on the three targeted adolescent outcomes. CSP, but not CSP Plus, had statistically significant indirect effects on reduced substance use and school suspensions at the 1-year follow-up as well as conduct problems and school suspensions at the 2-year follow-up through increased child emotion regulation skills at posttest. Findings provide some support for emotion regulation as one pathway through which the intervention was associated, indirectly, with reduced substance use, conduct problems, and school suspensions among at-risk students over the high school transition.

Validation of the Regulating Emotions in Parenting Scale (REPS): Factor structure and measurement invariance.

“…The burgeoning evidence that ER predicts parenting behavior has been increasingly leveraged by parenting interventions. For example, the Common Sense Parenting (CSP) program teaches parents effective ER strategies that can then be modeled for their children (Mason et al, 2016). Parents participating in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) demonstrated reduced emotion dys-regulation, which was associated with a greater magnitude of improvement in children's externalizing symptoms from pre-to posttreatment (Zimmer-Gembeck et al, 2019).…”

Los contenidos de la formación parental y sus implicaciones en el comportamiento de los adolescentes: elementos desde una revisión

“…Dentro de los aspectos regulatorios abordados, se encuentran el establecimiento de normas (Turini; Moreira, 2012), límites (Bröning et al, 2014;Orpinas et al, 2014) y rutinas (Cluver et al, 2016), que se abordan desde el entrenamiento en estrategias para el control parental (Jacobs et al, 2016;Ladapo et al, 2013) y la regulación del comportamiento de los hijos (Estrada et al, 2017); el despliegue de parámetros de disciplina (Kumpfer; Fenollar; Jubani, 2013) con un carácter inductivo (Mason et al, 2016;Rodríguez; Cruz, 2016) y positivo (Gómez; Cifuentes; Ortún, 2012; Shapiro; Prinz; Sanders, 2012); el establecimiento de una estructura en el hogar (Amaya et al, 2016;Rickard et al, 2015); la supervisión (Doubt et al, 2017); y el monitoreo (Hadley et al, 2016;Schwandt;Underwood, 2013;Smolkowski et al, 2017). En este punto, el monitoreo fue la práctica más abordada dentro de los aspectos regulatorios, con la presencia en 15 de los trabajos revisados, seguida del establecimiento de normas con 11 menciones.…”

Turning a Big Ship: Unleashing the Power of Prevention Within Treatment Settings

“…For example, using routine clinical records data (e.g., the Strengths and Stressors questionnaire; Berry, Cash, & Mathiesen, 2003), although subject to the caveats of nonexperimental research, Boys Town has documented preliminary pretest-posttest improvements among youths and families who have participated in preventive services via the In-Home Family Services program (Parra, Ross, Ringle, Samson, & Thompson, 2016). More rigorous studies with a prevention focus have been initiated, including a federally funded randomized trial of Boys Town's parenting program, Common Sense Parenting, which is implemented as a selective preventive intervention for at-risk adolescents transitioning to high school (Mason et al, 2016).…”

“…For example, it is unusual for treatment providers to have an in-house research department as Boys Town does. This department has facilitated data collection and evaluation activities as well as funded studies focused on prevention (Mason et al, 2016). Smaller treatment providers might need to look outside of the organization for research consultation, which requires additional resources.…”

“…For those contexts and populations, adaptations of evidence-based interventions may be needed, although the optimal balance between fidelity and adaptation often is uncertain (Carvalho et al, 2013;Castro, Barrera, & Martinez, 2004). Larger service providers like Boys Town with in-house researchers or external research partners could evaluate their own programs delivered as preventive interventions (e.g., Mason et al, 2016), although such efforts can be costly and time consuming.…”