A meta-analysis of parent training: Moderators and follow-up effects

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Abstract

A meta-analysis of 63 peer-reviewed studies evaluated the ability of parent training programs to modify disruptive child behaviors and parental behavior and perceptions. This analysis extends previous work by directly comparing behavioral and nonbehavioral programs, evaluating follow-up effects, isolating dependent variables expressly targeted by parent training, and examining moderators. Effects immediately following treatment for behavioral and nonbehavioral programs were small to moderate. For nonbehavioral programs, insufficient studies precluded examining follow-up effects. For behavioral programs, follow-up effects were small in magnitude. Parent training was least effective for economically disadvantaged families; importantly, such families benefited significantly more from individually delivered parent training compared to group delivery. Including children in their own therapy, separate from parent training, did not enhance outcomes.

Section snippets

Selection of studies

Nine criteria were used to select studies for inclusion. Studies were included if they (a) reported on parent training programs targeting disruptive child behaviors (but not criminal activity), (b) had at least one treatment and one control group which were drawn from the same population, (c) had treatment and control groups composed of at least five participants, (d) treated families in which the target children were not developmentally or cognitively delayed, (e) involved actual parent

Study characteristics

Table 2 presents descriptive statistics for behavioral and nonbehavioral parent training programs. Of the 83 experimental groups, 69 involved behavioral parent training programs while 14 involved nonbehavioral programs. The mean age of children from the 73 experimental groups which reported sufficient information was 81.42 (SD = 42.23) months. The mean ages for the three age categories we created were 48.26 (n = 36, SD = 9.13) months for the preschool group, 99.33 (n = 12, SD = 11.74) months for the

Discussion

Results from our meta-analysis suggest that, in general, parent training designed to modify disruptive child behavior is a robust intervention producing effect sizes in the moderate range immediately following treatment. Up to 1 year following the completion of parent training effects remained meaningful, but were small in magnitude. Unfortunately, understanding the durability of effects of nonbehavioral programs was compromised because only four studies assessed such a relationship. While the

Acknowledgements

We thank a number of colleagues for their help with this project, including Leah Behl, Kelly Wezner, Susan Myket, and Jameeka Moore.

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