Prevention of Child Behavior Problems Through Universal Implementation of a Group Behavioral Family Intervention

Abstract

The aim of this mental health promotion initiative was to evaluate the effectiveness of a universally delivered group behavioral family intervention (BFI) in preventing behavior problems in children. This study investigates the transferability of an efficacious clinical program to a universal prevention intervention delivered through child and community health services targeting parents of preschoolers within a metropolitan health region. A quasiexperimental two-group (BFI, n = 804 vs. Comparison group, n = 806) longitudinal design followed preschool aged children and their parents over a 2-year period. BFI was associated with significant reductions in parent-reported levels of dysfunctional parenting and parentreported levels of child behavior problems. Effect sizes on child behavior problems ranged from large (.83) to moderate (.47). Positive and significant effects were also observed in parent mental health, marital adjustment, and levels of child rearing conflict. Findings are discussed with respect to their implication for significant population reductions in child behavior problems as well as the pragmatic challenges for prevention science in encouraging both the evaluation and uptake of preventive initiatives in real world settings.

The MABIC project: An effectiveness trial for reducing risk factors for eating disorders

“…Randomization, or even being able to have a control group, is difficult to attain due to the requirements of the participating entities. The use of participants from a neighboring area with characteristics similar to those of the intervention group as a control group, as in our case, is an option already used in other effectiveness trials in prevention (Zubrick et al, 2005). This option can help avoid a "spillover" effect, and possible demographic differences could be controlled with strategies in place to match samples for demographic characteristics, or through covariate analyses (Yager et al, 2013).…”

Healthier Parents - Effects of Parent Training Programs on Mental Health

“…The authors searched Google Scholar, PubMed and Web of Science for studies published in the last 20 years with the key words universal, preventive, parent/al, training, management, program/s , programme/s (minus, school, cancer, tobacco, alcohol, new-born, hearing, media); and found no study that had intervention groups that participated in a parent training program included in the current study. However, six studies (Cann, Rogers, & Matthews, 2003;Hiscock et al, 2008;Kendall, Bloomfield, Appleton, & Kitaoka, 2013;Geoff Lindsay & Strand, 2013;Neville et al, 2013;Zubrick et al, 2005) investigated the effect of similar programs. However, the three studies by Zubrick, Hiscock and Neville et al each took place within a socioeconomically deprived region, and were associated with significant reductions in parent-reported levels of dysfunctional parenting (Zubrick et al) and stress (Neville et al).…”

Population‐based prevention of child maltreatment: the U.S. ‘Triple‐P System’ population trial

“…This program of research has shown successful outcomes with a number of populations and problem areas, with consistent improvement in quality of parenting across studies (e.g., Bor et al 2002;Sanders and McFarland 2000). Triple P has been evaluated as a universal, whole of population strategy and shown to strengthen parenting and reduce the prevalence of conduct problems in preschool-aged children from high-risk neighborhoods (Zubrick et al 2005), and to reduce coercive parenting practices through the implementation of multiple levels of Triple P . Several effectiveness and dissemination studies have been conducted on Triple P demonstrating portability and broad utility in multiple settings (Sanders et al 2003a, b;Turner and Sanders 2006;Zubrick et al 2005).…”

“…Triple P has been evaluated as a universal, whole of population strategy and shown to strengthen parenting and reduce the prevalence of conduct problems in preschool-aged children from high-risk neighborhoods (Zubrick et al 2005), and to reduce coercive parenting practices through the implementation of multiple levels of Triple P . Several effectiveness and dissemination studies have been conducted on Triple P demonstrating portability and broad utility in multiple settings (Sanders et al 2003a, b;Turner and Sanders 2006;Zubrick et al 2005). Additionally, several independent replications of Triple P implementation and findings in diverse cultural contexts have been conducted (Bodenmann et al 2008;Cann et al 2003;Crisante and Ng 2003;Dean et al 2003;Gallart and Matthey 2005;Heinrichs et al 2005Heinrichs et al , 2006aLeung et al 2003;Rogers et al 2003;Turner et al 2007).…”