Two strategies of group training of parents as effective behavior modifiers

Abstract

Two groups, a combination group and a specific-focus group, each composed of four mothers who had sought assistance for behavioral difficulties with their children, were matched on several variables. Parents in both groups attended weekly, 2-hr sessions over a 10-week span. The first four sessions of the combination training group were devoted to teaching parents the principles of behavior modification, while session 5 through 10 concentrated on changing target behaviors. The specific-focus group dealt solely with target problems during the 10-week program. Combination group mothers were able to deal effectively with a wide range of current behavioral problems. The combination training program also had a considerable impact upon parent-child interactions in play and command settings and upon parents' perceptions of their children as measured by parents' responses to a behavior adjective checklist. Specific-focus group mothers demonstrated some improvements on these measures but they were not as marked as those of the combination group mothers. Follow-up evaluation showed that the improvements initially achieved by the combination group tended to be more stable than those attained by the specific-focus mothers.