Training Parents to Manage Difficult Children: A Comparison of Methods

Abstract

This study examined the efficacy of training paz'ents in skills of child management. The parents had all sought help in coping with their pre-sohool children, and under. stood that training would be based upon social learning! behavioural principles.A pilot study, which compared the progress of five children visited at home and six whose parents were in weekly telephone contact with the author, gave encouraging results. Thirty seven children, six girls and thirty one boys, were then randomly allocated to one of four methods of training: group, home visit, telephone or waiting list! delayed intervention control. Participants in the three active intervention conditions were assessed pre-and postintervention. Participants in the waiting list/delayed intervention condition were assessed before and after an eight-weeks waiting period; they were then randomly reallocated to one of the three active intervention methods. Seven children were lost during the study, leaving thirty.Results indicated clinical improvement for all three active intervention conditions compared to the waiting list control condition. There were no significant differences between any of the three active intervention methods, either at post-intervention or at twelve to eighteen months follow-up. The results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.iii CONTENTS

Group-Based Parent Training for Preventing Mental Health Disorders in Children

“…To date, many parent training studies continue to be weakened by one of more of the following methodologica l problems: (1) small sample sizes, (2) lack of a control condition or nonrandom assignment to experimental groups, (3) inadequate use of follow-up to examine long-term maintenance of effects, (4) homogeneous samples, (5) poor attendance rates, and (6) high attrition rates (Barlow & Stewart-Brown, 2000;Thomas, 1999;Tucker & Gross, 1997). Nonetheless, several programs have documented ef cacy showing that, with some populations , they lead to signi cant improvements in parent-child outcomes that are sustainable up to at least one year post-intervention (Strayhorn & Weidman, 1991;Sutton, 1992;Tucker & Gross, 1997;Webster-Stratton, 1990). …”

Parent Counselling: An Evaluation of a Community Child Mental Health Service

“…Sutton (1992Sutton ( , 1995 has shown significant benefits post-intervention and at follow-up for parents and children as the result of child behavioural management training based on social learning theory. Recent data from Parr (1995) indicates that preparation for parenthood can benefit families by increasing parental confidence, enhancing their satisfaction with the parent-child and parent-parent relationships, and improving strategies for dealing with new parenthood.…”

Impact of a general practice based group parenting programme: quantitative and qualitative results from a controlled trial at 12 months

“…Several well known studies with results at one year, only report results for the intervention group. 20 [22][23][24] This paper reports the 12 month follow up results from a controlled trial of the Parent and Child Series Incredible Years programme 25 delivered by health visitors in a general practice setting, drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data. The methodology and 6 month results, showing a positive impact on a key aspect of children's mental health (conduct) and a short term benefit on one aspect of parental mental health (social functioning), have been reported previously.…”