A comparison of the effects of child management and planned activities training in five parenting environments

Abstract

This study compared the effects of two procedures designed to enhance the extratraining effects of behavioral parent training. Twenty parents of oppositional children were randomly assigned to either a child management training condition or a combined child management plus planned activities condition. A further 10 nonproblem children and their parents served as a social validation group. Observations of both parent and child behavior were conducted in each of five home observation settings (breakfast time, kindy (kindergarten) or school exit, a structured playtime, bathtime, and bedtime). Both training procedures resulted in changes in both child oppositional and parent aversive behavior in all observation settings. In addition, desired positive parenting behaviors also improved in all settings. Treatment effects were maintained in all settings at 3-month follow-up. Comparisons between oppositional children following treatment and children in the social validation group showed that they each displayed similarly low levels of oppositional behavior in all settings. The implications of the results for facilitating generalized changes in behavioral parent training are discussed.