Early Initiatives for Children at Risk—Development of a Program for the Prevention and Treatment of Behavior Problems in Primary Services

Abstract

During the past decade, Norwegian authorities have initiated and funded a project to scale up the use of evidence-based programs for the prevention and treatment of conduct problems in children. The first step in this process was to increase treatment competence by implementing the Parent Management Training-Oregon Model (PMTO) in specialist services for children. The second step was to develop the program Early Initiatives for Children at Risk (Norwegian acronym, TIBIR), designed to identify children with possible conduct problems as early as possible and to offer tailored interventions as part of the ordinary primary services for children in individual municipalities. The theoretical rationale and practical considerations leading to the design of TIBIR are presented, together with the program modules and current research activities. Some of the challenges concerning the program's ability to reach various risk groups are discussed, as are the challenges encountered regarding quality assurance and fidelity maintenance. Finally, some future research questions are presented and discussed.