Parent and family interventions in pediatric psychology: Clinical applications.

Abstract

Oklahoma State UniversityParent and family interventions have a long, demonstrated history of utilization in pediatricpsychology settings. The current article will first briefly overview and describe the pre-dominant parent and family intervention approaches used in pediatric psychology, includ-ing traditional family therapy approaches, cognitive–behavioral family therapy, behavioralfamily systems therapy, multisystemic therapy, and problem-solving therapy approaches.Broad strategies for the practical implementation of these interventions are discussed,including working with multiple subsystems, collaboration with interdisciplinary teams,developing shared conceptual models with family and medical team members, and exer-cising both flexibility and clinical judgment with complex cases. Obstacles and barriers tosuccessful implementation of these treatments will next be reviewed, including parent/caregiver characteristics, patient characteristics, economic challenges, medical setting char-acteristics, and communication barriers, as well as recommendations for overcoming thesebarriers. A case study is presented that illustrates a typical family intervention approach.Future directions are reviewed including continued empirical evaluation of family inter-ventions,conductingdismantlingstudies,targetingofresiliencyvariables,andevaluationofelectronically delivered treatments.