Understanding Differential Effectiveness of Behavioral Parent Training from a Family Systems Perspective: Families Are Greater than “Some of Their Parts”

Abstract

Behavioral parent training (BPT) is a theory-driven, evidence-based, and widely used intervention strategy for preventing and decreasing children's disruptive behavior problems, indirectly via improved parenting behavior. However, not all families benefit equally from BPT. To date, our knowledge of who benefits (and who does not) and our understanding of why some families benefit more than others is limited. An important challenge for research and practice is finding ways to tailor interventions to the needs of an individual family and increase their effectiveness. We put forward family systems theory as a tool to

Measuring parent-adolescent interactions in natural habitats. The potential, status, and challenges of Ecological Momentary Assessment.

“…Indeed in other domains, EMA is used to identify risk with more sensitive measures, provide tailored feedback, and identify person-specific targets for intervention [48]- [50]. Thirdly, by providing micro-insights into the underlying working-mechanisms EMA yields in-depth insights into how interventions work, why they work, and what works for whom [16], [51]. Despite the obvious promise of these suggested personalized parenting interventions, their development and evaluation are still in their infancy.…”

“…Moreover, EMA can be applied to assess momentary interaction quality as well as concrete parenting behaviors [22], but there is lack of research on the quality of these EMA-instruments. To understand parenting within the broader families system, ideally, caregivers and adolescents report on the same interactions and events [51]. This additional technological challenge is yet to be solved.…”

Parental self-efficacy and satisfaction with parenting as mediators of the association between children’s noncompliance and marital satisfaction

“…Family systems theory (FST; Minuchin, 1974) provides a theoretical framework for understanding the impact of rearing children with behavioral problems on parents and on processes within the family. FST views the family as a functional unit composed of individual members and several subsystems, each of which cannot be fully understood outside the context of the specific family system and the interactions between its subsystems (Weeland et al, 2021). Thus, children's behavioral problems should be assessed in the context of their interaction with other family subsystems, including their parents' marital relationship.…”

“…Fourth, FST holds that in order to fully understand processes and effects within the family system, data from both caregivers is required (Weeland et al, 2021). However, most existing research on children's behavioral problems in the family context has focused primarily on mothers, with much less focus being given to fathers (Cabrera et al, 2018).…”

The Predictive Effect of Parental Adult Attachment on Parent–Adolescent Attachment: The Mediating Role of Harsh Parenting

“…Additionally, Jones and Cassidy ( 2014 ) explored the relationship between the parent's experiences with a secure base and the adolescent's own experiences of a secure base; however, this study separately explored father–adolescent and mother–adolescent relationships instead of combining them into one model. This composition is problematic because it forgets family systems theory's recognition that father–mother interactions affect parent–adolescent attachment (Weeland et al, 2021 ), which is discussed in more detail in section Parent Adult Attachment Style and Parent–Adolescent Attachment.…”