Problem-Solving Skills Training plus Parent Management Training (PSST + PMT)

 

OVERVIEW

 

Children referred to a psychiatric facility for severe antisocial behavior participated in a two-tiered intervention designed to reduce antisocial behavior and improve the child and family functioning. The two-tiered intervention is a combination of was comprised of problem-solving skills training (PSST), which focuses on the child’s cognitive-behavioral repertoire, and parent management training (PMT), which focuses on child rearing practices, parent-child interactions, and parental practices that support prosocial behaviors in and outside of the home. PSST + PMT was more likely to evidence marked changes in child and parent functioning, and placed greater proportion of youth within the range of non-clinic levels of functioning than families assigned to only the PSST or PMT conditions.

 

 

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

 

Target population: School-age children who display antisocial behaviors

 

The intervention was designed to reduce antisocial behaviors and improve child and family functioning through problem-solving skills training (PSST) and parent management training (PMT) or a combination of both. PSST focuses on child’s cognitive-behavioral repertoire and PMT focuses on child rearing practices. Children attended 25 weekly therapy sessions that included role-playing, modeling, practice, corrective feedback and reinforcement to develop problem-solving skills. The parents attended 16 individual sessions that addressed observing and defining behavior, variations of positive reinforcement, shaping, negotiating and contracting, and providing time out, reprimands, and special contingencies for low-rate behavior. Children were brought into the sessions at different points to help parents review the program and negotiate reinforcement, as well as to monitor the parents’ execution and adherence to the program, and to supervise and shape parent-child negotiations of home- and school-based reinforcement contingencies.

 

 

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

 

Kazdin, A. E., Siegel, T. C., & Bass, D. (1992). Cognitive problem-solving skills training and parent management training in the treatment of antisocial behavior in children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60 (5), 733-747.

 

Evaluated population: Ninety-seven children (aged 7-13 years) who were referred to a psychiatric facility for aggressive and antisocial behavior participated in the study. The participants included 21 girls and 76 boys, of which 69% were white, and 31% were black. Sixty-one percent of children came from two-parent families, with the remaining 39% coming from single-parent families.

 

 Approach: The study employed a randomized experimental trial, where families were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (PSST, PMT, or PSST + PMT), each lasting approximately 6-8 months.

 

Participants were selected based on the following criteria: receipt of treatment referral for violence or truancy; parents reported aggression or delinquency; read at or above second grade level; showed no evidence of neurological impairment; were not receiving psychotropic mediation; and were 7 to 13 years of age. If children and families met the criteria, they were randomly assigned to one of treatment conditions

 

To measure the effectiveness of the intervention to reduce antisocial behavior and improve child and family functioning, pre- and post-treatment assessments of child dysfunction and prosocial competence; performance at school; adaptive and competence-related behaviors; aggressive, antisocial, and delinquent behaviors; and parent and family functioning were administered.

 

 

Results: Analyses revealed that PSST + PMT led to significant improvements in overall child dysfunction, prosocial competence, and aggressive, antisocial, and delinquent behaviors. The intervention also significantly improved child aggression, antisocial behavior, and delinquency, and parental stress, depression, and other symptoms of parent dysfunction, relative to PSST or PMT only. PSST + PMT combined also placed greater proportion of youth within normative levels of functioning. At post-treatment and at follow-up, significantly more PSST + PMT cases fell within normal range, greater than PSST or PMT cases.

 

 

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

 

References

 

Kazdin, A. E., Siegel, T. C., & Bass, D. (1997). Cognitive problem-solving skills training and parent management training in the treatment of antisocial behavior in children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60 (5), 733-747.

 

 

Program also discussed in the following Child Trends publication(s):

 

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

 

Evaluated participant ages: 2^nd-7^th grades / Program age ranges in the Guide: middle childhood

 

Program components: parent or family component

 

Measured outcomes: social and emotional health and development, life skills, behavioral problems

 

Keywords: Problem-Solving Skills, Delinquent Behavior, Childhood (6 to 12), Adolescence (12 to 17); White or Caucasian, Parent or Family Component, Life Skills, Aggression, Behavior Problems.

 

Program information last updated 10/9/2010

 

 

 

 

 

		© Child Trends 2004