Publication year
2010
Citation Title
Who benefits and how does it work? Moderators and mediators of outcome in an effectiveness trial of a parenting intervention
Journal Name
Journalof Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology
Journal Volume
39
Issue Number
4
Page Numbers
568-580
DOI
10.1080/15374416.2010.486315
Summary
Parenting intervention has been found effective to reduce child problem behaviors. Two groups of preschoolers at risk for conduct problems were included in the study, with one group's parents receiving parenting intervention, and the other group not. Results revealed that families with certain characteristics benefited more from the intervention than others, and positive parenting was the key to intervention success.
Key Findings
The parenting intervention was most effective in terms of preventing conduct problems for boys, younger children, and those with more depressed mothers.
Children who had more or fewer deviant behaviors at baseline were equally likely to benefit from the intervention program.
Improvement in positive parenting skills after the intervention were predictive of changes in conduct problems.
Implications for Military Professionals
Participate in professional trainings to learn more about preventing and reducing conduct problems in preschoolers, and how these relate to military families
Help military parents develop strategies to reduce children’s and adolescents’ conduct problems
Implications for Program Leaders
Increase outreach efforts to military families to advertise available parenting intervention programs
Host workshops for military parents to improve their parenting skills
Implications for Policy Makers
Continue to support programs aimed at increasing the well-being of military parents and their children
Raise awareness of the importance of parenting education for disadvantaged and distressed military families
Methods
Families were recruited in 11 socially disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups, and parents in the intervention group received the 12-week Incredible Years parenting intervention; the mean attendance was 9.2 sessions.
Families in both groups were assessed at entry and at 6-month follow-up (average retention rate = 87%); the assessments included parent questionnaires regarding child problem behaviors and parent depression, and home observations of parent-child interactions.
Participants
Participants were 153 preschoolers at risk for conduct problems; 104 of them were randomly assigned to the intervention group, and 49 were in the control group.
The average ages of the children in the intervention and control groups were 46.4 months (SD = 6.6) and 46.2 months (SD = 4.3), respectively.
The race/ethnicity of the participants were not indicated in the article.
Limitations
All participants in the study came from distressed and disadvantaged families, therefore the results may not be applicable to the general population.
Participants were assessed six months after the start of the program, thus the long-term effect of the intervention is unknown.
The race/ethnicity information of the participants was missing, which limits the ability to generalize the results.
Avenues for Future Research
Collect longitudinal data to assess the effectiveness of the parenting intervention over time
Recruit families from various socioeconomic backgrounds to increase the diversity of the sample
Examine the effect of parenting intervention on other aspects of child outcomes, such as social competency and intellectual development
Focus
Civilian
Target Population
Population Focus
Abstract
We examined mediators and moderators of change in conduct problems, in a multiagency randomized trial of the Incredible Years parenting program. Preschoolers (n = 153) at risk for conduct problems were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 104) and wait-list (n = 49) groups. Boys and younger children, and those with more depressed mothers, tended to show greater improvement in conduct problems post-intervention. Other risk factors (i.e., teen or single parenthood, very low income, high initial levels of problem behavior) showed no predictive effects, implying intervention was at least as successful at helping the most disadvantaged families, compared to more advantaged. Mediator analyses found change in positive parenting skill predicted change in conduct problems
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