A Randomized Controlled Trial on Brief Behavioral Parent Training

Launched by ACCARE · Oct 19, 2022

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying a new, short parent training program designed to help families manage their child's behavioral difficulties, such as being hyperactive, defiant, or impulsive. Because many families struggle to access traditional parent training due to long waiting lists and the time commitment involved, this trial aims to see if a brief, tailored approach with just three sessions can be effective. Parents who participate will either receive this new training or continue with the usual care offered at mental health centers. The study will measure how well the training works in the short and long term and will also look at whether it is cost-effective.

To be eligible for the trial, children must be between the ages of 2 and 12 and have at least four specific behavioral issues that the parents want to address. Parents must also be able to participate consistently at home. This training involves two sessions that last two hours each and a third one-hour session to review progress. For families in the training group, there are also options for additional support if needed. Overall, this trial aims to make effective help more accessible for families dealing with challenging behaviors in their children.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • The child is aged between 2 and 12 years;
• • Parents have to identify at least four behavioral difficulties of the child that occur in the home setting and that they want to target in the training, using an adapted version of a list of target behaviors (Van den Hoofdakker et al., 2007; Hornstra et al., 2021). This list contains 29 behaviors that can be targeted in the training, such as hyperactive, impulsive, inattentive, oppositional and defiant behavior. The items are derived from target problems that parents mentioned in previous behavioral parent training groups and concern child behaviors that are commonly targeted in behavioral parent training in clinical practice, confirming ecological validity (Van den Hoofdakker et al., 2007).
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • The child uses psychotropic medication (currently or in the month before the screening);
• • The child has at any time received a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in clinical practice, as (parents of) children with ASD may have different needs and therefore may require different treatments than children with behavioral difficulties without ASD;
• • The child has a known IQ-score below 70, as (parents of) children with intellectual disabilities may have different needs and therefore may require different treatments than children with behavioral difficulties and typical intellectual abilities;
• • Parents received behavioral parent training aimed at reducing the behavioral difficulties of the concerned child in the year prior to the start of the study;
• • It is not a suitable period for the parents and/or the child to participate in the study (e.g., moving, divorce);
• • The child is not living in the same household as the parent(s) who participate(s) in the trial during at least four weekdays (to ensure that our primary outcome can be reported by the same informant(s) and that parents can apply the intervention plans at home).