Preventative Behavioral Parent Training: A Preliminary Investigation of Strategies for Preventing At-Risk Children From Developing Later Conduct Problems

Abstract

Children exhibiting conduct problems comprise the largest source of referrals to children's mental health services in this county. Significant research has been conducted in an attempt to identify specific risk factors that result in increased vulnerability of a child developing conduct problems. Knowledge of these factors increases our ability to identify young children who are at greater risk for developing conduct problems. The treatment for conduct problems that possesses the greatest amount of empirical support is behavioral parent training. Yet behavioral parent training fails to address behaviors and risk factors that are present during a child's early development. Preventative behavioral parent training is a very brief primary prevention strategy designed to prevent the development of chronic and age-inappropriate display of conduct problems. This project was an initial longitudinal assessment examining the merits of preventative behavioral iv parent training as a primary prevention strategy for young children at-risk of developing conduct problems. Results demonstrated that prevention participants were engaging in normative rates of noncompliance and tantruming at 6-month follow-up, whereas comparison children showed a general worsening in their disruptive behaviors over time.(163 pages) v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The lasting impact of early‐life adversity on individuals and their descendants: potential mechanisms and hope for intervention

“…Importantly, treatment‐induced enhancements of parenting attitudes have been shown to be transmitted to a subsequent generation, indicating the potential generational impact of parenting interventions (Mahrer et al ). Furthermore, parenting interventions have also proven to be effective at reducing or preventing negative child mental health outcomes in these at‐risk samples, with reductions in child internalizing and externalizing problems reported across different forms of parental psychopathology and stress (Bywater et al ; Guttentag et al ; Lam et al ; Lowell et al ; Malmberg & Field ; Self‐Brown et al ). However, there is evidence that parenting interventions are less effective for the offspring of individuals with greater symptoms of psychopathology (e.g.…”