Commentary: Issues in Training Parents to Manage Children With Behavior Problems

Abstract

Training parents in the use of contingency management methods to help them better manage their children's disruptive behavior is among the oldest and most well-substantiated treatment approaches in child mental health services ( Kazdin, 1991 Kazdin AE Effectiveness of psychotherapy with children and adolescents. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1991; 58: 729-740 Crossref Scopus (273) Google Scholar , Kazdin, 1997 Kazdin AE Parent management training: evidence, outcomes, and issues. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1997; 36: 1349-1356 Abstract Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (350) Google Scholar ). Approaches to parent training may vary, but all seem to share a common set of principles concerning the changes that are often necessary in altering the eliciting events and consequences used by most parents of disruptive children to improve their child's behavior and compliance. These can be summarized as follows: reducing any positive reinforcement (such as parental attention) being inadvertently provided to the child for engaging in disruptive or defiant behavior, while simultaneously increasing the reinforcement parents provide for prosocial or compliant behavior; and applying punishment contingent on the display of disruptive or unacceptable behavior, while making parental use of consequences more predictable, contingent, and immediate ( Barkley, 1997 Barkley RA Defiant Children: A Clinician's Manual for Parent Training. 2nd ed. Guilford, New York1997 Google Scholar , Eyberg and Robinson, 1982 Eyberg SM Robinson EA Parent-child interaction training: effects on family functioning. J Clin Child Psychol. 1982; 11: 130-137 Google Scholar , Forehand and McMahon, 1981 Forehand R McMahon R Helping the Noncompliant Child: A Clinician's Guide to Parent Training. Guilford, New York1981 Google Scholar , Patterson et al., 1975 Patterson GR Reid JB Jones RR Conger RE A Social Learning Approach to Family Intervention. Vol 1. Castalia, Eugene, OR1975 Google Scholar , Wahler and Fox, 1980 Wahler RG Fox JJ Solitary toy play and time out: a family treatment package for children with aggressive and oppositional behavior. J Appl Behav Anal. 1980; 13: 23-39 Crossref PubMed Scopus (40) Google Scholar , Webster-Stratton and Spitzer, 1996 Webster-Stratton C Spitzer A Parenting a young child with conduct problems. in: Ollendick TH Prinz RJ Advances in Clinical Child Psychology. Vol 18. Plenum, New York1996: 1-62 Google Scholar ).