Parents Plus Systemic, Solution‐Focused Parent Training Programs: Description, Review of the Evidence Base, and Meta‐Analysis

Abstract

Parents Plus (PP) programs are systemic, solution-focused, group-based interventions. They are designed for delivery in clinical and community settings as treatment programs for families with child-focused problems, such as behavioral difficulties, disruptive behavior disorders, and emotional disorders in young people with and without developmental disabilities. PP programs have been developed for families of preschoolers, preadolescent children, and teenagers, as well as for separated or divorced families. Seventeen evaluation studies involving over 1,000 families have shown that PP programs have a significant impact on child behavior problems, goal attainment, and parental satisfaction and stress. The effect size of 0.57 (p < .001) from a meta-analysis of 10 controlled studies for child behavior problems compares favorably with those of meta-analyses of other well-established parent training programs with large evidence bases. In controlled studies, PP programs yielded significant (p < .001) effect sizes for goal attainment (d = 1.51), parental satisfaction (d = 0.78), and parental stress reduction (d = 0.54). PP programs may be facilitated by trained front-line mental health and educational professionals.

Meta-meta-analysis on the effectiveness of parent-based interventions for the treatment of child externalizing behavior problems

“…Basic descriptive statistics were often stated only partially. Although parental and child gender were not declared in all meta-analyses, one can act on the assumption that the majority of data was provided by mothers reporting on their sons (e.g., [ 40 , 50 , 56 ]). In most instances studies solely included parents of children under the age of 13 (range 0–18 years), only eight studies included youth older than 13 to some extent (e.g., [ 39 , 56 ]).…”

Brief Emotion Focused Family Therapy: An Intervention for Parents of Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Issues

“…Although health care professionals often consider parents to be an important part of a child's mental health‐care (Barrett, Duffy, Dadds, & Rapee, ; Brendel & Maynard, ), they are often under‐utilized in the delivery of evidence‐based treatment models (Dietz, Weinberg, Brent, & Mufson, ; Taboas, McKay, Whiteside, & Storch, ; West et al., ), or involved only as adjuncts to the primary clinical work with the child (Burke & Loeber, ). However, in line with the growing body of research that supports the effectiveness of parent‐based interventions (Carr, Hartnett, Sharry, & Brosnan, ; Henggeler & Sheidow, ; Kaslow, Broth, Smith, & Collins, ), EFFT is a treatment model that increases parent involvement while also targeting the barriers to a parent's ability to support their child's recovery, regardless of age.…”

Universal parental support for parents of adolescents: Who wants municipality‐based parental support and in what form?

“…Such support can be provided through group or individual family‐based services. Family‐based counseling or therapy is widespread and supported by solid evidence (Austin, Macgowan & & Wagner, ; Baldwin, Christian, Berkeljon & Shadish, ; Carr, Hartnett, Brosnan & Sharry, ; Pol, Hoeve, Noom et al ., ; Sexton & Alexander, ; Smith & Cook‐Cottone, ) and growing research on the efficacy and effectiveness of parental support programs supports their value (Altafim & Linhares, ; Chu et al ., ; Dretzke, Davenport, Frew et al ., ; Eyberg, Nelson & Boggs, ; Furlong et al ., ). However, much of the research on family‐based interventions or parenting programs has involved indicated or selective approaches to prevention (Baldwin et al ., ; Carr et al ., ; Chu et al ., ; Furlong et al ., ), and most parent training programs were originally developed with parents of younger children in mind (Eyberg et al ., ; Kumpfer, Whiteside, Greene & Allen, ; Ralph, Winston Tournbourou, Grigg, Mulcahy, Carr‐Gregg & Sanders, ).…”

“…Family‐based counseling or therapy is widespread and supported by solid evidence (Austin, Macgowan & & Wagner, ; Baldwin, Christian, Berkeljon & Shadish, ; Carr, Hartnett, Brosnan & Sharry, ; Pol, Hoeve, Noom et al ., ; Sexton & Alexander, ; Smith & Cook‐Cottone, ) and growing research on the efficacy and effectiveness of parental support programs supports their value (Altafim & Linhares, ; Chu et al ., ; Dretzke, Davenport, Frew et al ., ; Eyberg, Nelson & Boggs, ; Furlong et al ., ). However, much of the research on family‐based interventions or parenting programs has involved indicated or selective approaches to prevention (Baldwin et al ., ; Carr et al ., ; Chu et al ., ; Furlong et al ., ), and most parent training programs were originally developed with parents of younger children in mind (Eyberg et al ., ; Kumpfer, Whiteside, Greene & Allen, ; Ralph, Winston Tournbourou, Grigg, Mulcahy, Carr‐Gregg & Sanders, ). There is a gap in research into interventions offered universally to parents of adolescents (Chu et al ., ; Eyberg et al ., ; Furlong et al ., ), but some such studies have shown positive effects such as improved parenting confidence (Chu et al ., ), communication (Leijten, Raaijmakers, De Castro & Matthys, ), parental satisfaction (Rickard, Brosnan, O'Laoide et al ., ) and reduced dysfunctional disciplining behavior (Leijten et al ., ), adolescent problem behavior (Chu et al ., ), and adolescent emotional difficulties (Rickard et al ., ).…”