Parenting Programs to Reduce Young Children’s Externalizing Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of Their Behavioral or Cognitive Orientation

Mouton, Bénédicte; Loop, Laurie; Stiévenart, Marie; Roskam, Isabelle

doi:10.1080/07317107.2018.1477348

Cited by 15 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…A majority of these programs tend to cover a wide range of parenting behaviors, such as warmth, sensitivity, praise, rule setting, and monitoring. They also tend to prioritize the modification of parenting behaviors rather than cognition [31,32]. Nevertheless, several parenting programs have included cognitive components in addition to the existing behavioral components [33].…”

Section: Parenting Programs To Improve Child Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Confident Parents for Easier Children: A Parental Self-Efficacy Program to Improve Young Children’s Behavior

Mouton¹,

Loop²,

Stiévenart

et al. 2018

Education Sciences

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This study presents the effects on children’s behavior of Confident Parents, a focused parenting program targeting parental self-efficacy. This parenting program aims to improve child behavior through the enhancement of parental self-efficacy. Confident Parents was experimentally tested on a total sample of 80 parents of three-to-six-year-old preschool aged children with moderate to clinical levels of externalizing behavior. Thirty-seven parents participated in the program, and were compared with a waitlist control group (n = 43). The intervention consisted of eight weekly group sessions. Effect sizes were evaluated through both observational and parent-report measures on the child’s behavior, as well as self-reported parental self-efficacy at pretest, post-test, and a four-month follow-up. Through a multi-level analysis, predictors of the change in the child’s behavior were identified. The moderating effect of socio-economic risk and externalizing behavior at baseline were also included in the analysis. Results show that Confident Parents improved the child’s behavior, both reported by parents and, to a lesser extent, when observed in interaction with the parent. Children with higher levels of behavior difficulty benefited more while those with socio-economic risk benefited less from this program. These results illustrate that focusing a parenting program on improving self-efficacy is effective to reduce externalizing behavior in children. This underdeveloped treatment target is worthy of investigation in parenting intervention research.

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Section: Parenting Programs To Improve Child Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Confident Parents for Easier Children: A Parental Self-Efficacy Program to Improve Young Children’s Behavior

Mouton¹,

Loop²,

Stiévenart

et al. 2018

Education Sciences

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“…Even though the results of the current meta-analyses were null, the effectiveness of parent-training interventions on other important parent and child outcomes is well established. For example, parenting programs have been shown to reduce parental self-reported stress [ 63 ]; lower child internalizing [ 64 ] and externalizing [ 65 ] behaviors; reduce sleep problems [ 66 ] and excessive crying [ 67 ]. As such, even if parent-training programs do not affect acute cortisol levels, they are still important for improving other health and social outcomes [ 67 , 68 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of parenting interventions on child and caregiver cortisol levels: systematic review and meta-analysis

et al. 2020

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Background Nurturing care, in which children are raised in engaging and safe environments, may reduce child stress and shape hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning. Hence, parent-training programs may impact child cortisol levels, as well as behavioral, social and health outcomes. We conducted a systematic review of the impact of parent-training interventions on children’s and caregivers’ cortisol levels, and meta-analyzed the results. Methods In January 2020, searches in PubMed, LILACS, ERIC, Web of Science, Scielo, Scopus, PsycNET and POPLINE databases were conducted, and two independent researchers screened the results for eligible studies – randomized trials that assessed the impact of parent-training interventions on child or caregiver cortisol levels. Random effects were used to pool the estimates, separately for children and caregivers, and for children’s morning and evening cortisol levels, as well as change across the day. Results A total of 27 eligible studies were found. Data from 19 studies were extracted and included in the meta-analyses, with 18 estimates of child cortisol levels and 5 estimates for caregiver cortisol levels. The pooled effect size (standardized mean difference) for the effects of parent training programs on morning child cortisol was 0.01 (95%CI: − 0.14 to 0.16; I 2 : 47.5%), and for caregivers it was 0.04 (95%CI: − 0.22 to 0.30; I 2 : 0.0%). Similar null results were observed for child evening cortisol and for the slope between morning and evening child cortisol. No evidence of publication bias was found. Conclusion Existing evidence shows no effect of parent-training interventions on child or caregiver post-intervention cortisol. Researchers are encouraged to adopt standardized protocols to improve evaluation standards, to test for intervention effects on psychosocial outcomes that are theorized to mediate the effects on biomarkers, and to use additional biomarkers for chronic stress.

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“…This unexpected finding regarding the direction might be also explained by the cognitive nature of the intervention that focuses on parental self-efficacy. This is unusual compared to most parenting interventions focusing on coaching parents on child-rearing practices, as discussed in a recent meta-analytic review of parenting interventions for preschoolers (Mouton, Loop, Stievenart, & Roskam, in press). Parental self-efficacy manipulation may not affect children in the same way as other behavioral or cognitive-behavioral parenting interventions.…”

Section: Summary and Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It may show here a specific effect of the modification of a cognitive parenting variable, compared to most parenting interventions that focus on the short-term modification of parenting behavior. In such programs, it is not possible to disentangle effects according to what is worked with the parents during the program (cognitive or behavioral elements), as shown in a recent meta-analytic review (Mouton et al, in press). Yet, the relation between parental self-efficacy and parental behaviors may not be as linear as it used to be described in literature.…”

Section: Summary and Concluding Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child differential sensitivity to parental self-efficacy improvement

Mouton¹,

Loop²,

Stiévenart

et al. 2017

International Journal of Behavioral Development

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This study investigates the hypothesis of a child differential sensitivity to parenting improvement. One hundred and fourteen parents of preschoolers participated in two parenting micro-trials aiming to increase parental self-efficacy in view of improving child behavior. The first micro-trial took place in a short-term laboratory experiment; the other was an eight-week parenting group intervention, both focusing on altering parental cognition. Differential effects of parental self-efficacy improvement on child’s positive and negative behaviors, depending on child temperament, were compared at post-test between control and experimental groups. Both observation and questionnaires were used to measure child behavior as well as regression and Regions of Significance analyses. Child differential sensitivity was found both in the laboratory experiment and in the parenting intervention for the temperamental trait of negative emotionality but not for the temperamental trait of activity. However, this sensitivity was in an unexpected direction. Highly emotional children benefited less from this parental cognitive improvement than children low on emotionality. These results may be explained by the specific cognitive nature of these two parenting micro-trials.

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Parenting Programs to Reduce Young Children’s Externalizing Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of Their Behavioral or Cognitive Orientation

Cited by 15 publications

References 82 publications

Confident Parents for Easier Children: A Parental Self-Efficacy Program to Improve Young Children’s Behavior

Confident Parents for Easier Children: A Parental Self-Efficacy Program to Improve Young Children’s Behavior

Effects of parenting interventions on child and caregiver cortisol levels: systematic review and meta-analysis

Child differential sensitivity to parental self-efficacy improvement

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