BEHAVIORAL AND COGNITIVE PARENT TRAINING GROUPS

Abstract

This treatment outcome study investigated the extent to which cognitive and behavioral interventions, delivered through parent training groups, fostered the maintenance and generality of positive behavioral change in children. Parents of children with significant behavioral problems at home participated in four treatment groups. Three of these groups offered active interventions and consisted of: a behaviorally oriented group, a cognitively oriented group and a combination behavioral and cognitive group. The fourth group functioned as a no-treatment control. Outcome measures were collected on both mothers and their children after an eight-week period of active intervention. In addition, some measures were repeated at a four-week follow-up to assess maintenance of improvement. A parent rating scale was used to assess behavioral improvement at home and a teacher rating scale was used to assess behavioral improvement in school. If siblings of an appropriate age were available, parents were asked to fill out behavior rating forms for them also, to assess generalization of treatment effect to siblings.;An adult problem-solving measure was also collected to ascertain whether the mothers' participation in the group improved their problem-solving skills. In addition, a children's problem-solving measure was utilized to ascertain whether the intervention delivered through the parent groups had any effect on the children's problem-solving skills. The children also completed a children's Locus of Control scale.;Significant behavioral improvement at home was found for every group. However, an important limitation of this study was that many children were also receiving another intervention, namely medication. When only children off medication were considered, only two groups--the behaviorally oriented group and the combination behavioral and cognitive group--showed significant behavioral improvement at home. In addition, the parent's participation in a group with a behavioral component was associated with improved scores on the children's problem-solving measure.;Although significance was not reached, some important trends were noted for the cognitive group in terms of continued behavioral improvement at home and generality of improvement to the school setting.