Effects of the incredible years parenting program on children's interpersonal conflict: An integrative data analysis.

Behavioral parenting programs, such as Incredible Years (IY), reduce conduct problems in children. However, conduct problems encompass many different behaviors, and little is known about the effects of parenting programs on specific aspects of children's conduct problems, such as children's relationships with others. The aim of this study was to examine, for the first time, the effects of the IY parenting program on children's levels of conflict with their parents, siblings, and peers. We used individual participant-level data pooled across 12 randomized trials in Europe, comprising a total of 1,409 families: child aged 1-11 years (M = 5.53 years, SD = 1.56) and 61% male, 60% low-income families, and 30% from an ethnic minority. Multilevel models were used to explore the effects of IY on children's conflict with parents, siblings, and peers. The IY program reduced children's conflict with their parents (ß = -.21), but there were no main effects of the program on conflict with siblings or peers. Moderation analyses showed that IY reduced conflict in sibling relationships for the 22% of families with the most severe sibling conflict at baseline. This suggests that high-quality behavioral parenting programs, such as IY, can effectively reduce children's conflict within the home (i.e., with parents and siblings), especially when initial levels of sibling conflict are high, but do not have broader benefits on children's interpersonal conflict outside of the home (i.e., with peers). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Emotion regulation training as a treatment element for externalizing problems in adolescence: A randomized controlled micro-trial.

Improving interventions for externalizing problems in adolescence may require determining which treatment elements actually produce change. In this micro-trial, we tested a treatment element addressing one widely-hypothesized mechanism underlying externalizing problems: emotion regulation. We tested whether emotion regulation could be improved via training, whether adolescents who received such training would subsequently show reduced externalizing problems, and which training approach and sequence was most effective. We randomized 108 adolescents with elevated externalizing problems (71.3% boys, Mage = 13.66, SD = 1.10) to a control condition or an experimental condition teaching emotion regulation through either a cognitive or behavioral approach, in alternated sequences. Effects of the modules were assessed before and after the modules, and with weekly assessments. The results showed a positive effect of the experimental training on self-reported use of adaptive emotion regulation strategies. However, self-reported externalizing problems decreased more in the control condition than in the experimental condition. No mediation, approach (cognitive versus behavioral) or sequence (cognitive-behavioral versus behavioral-cognitive sequence) effects were found. These findings illustrate that change in a proposed mechanism may not be accompanied by change in targeted problems; this highlights the importance of testing the hypothesized impact of specific treatment elements on targeted mental health problems. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was registered in the Dutch Trial Register (NTR7334, July 10th, 2018) and the study protocol was published (te Brinke, Schuiringa, Menting, Dekovic, & de Castro, 2018).

A trial of parent training for mothers being released from incarceration and their children.

Children of incarcerated mothers are considered at risk for disruptive behavior problems and later delinquency. Parenting may play a key role in this intergenerational transmission of delinquency. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Incredible Years parent training, enhanced with home visits, for (formerly) incarcerated mothers to prevent disruptive behavior problems in their 2- to 10-year-old children, by means of a nationwide randomized controlled trial. Mothers of 133 children (M age = 76.91 months; 48.9% boys) were assigned to an intervention, consisting of group sessions and individual home visits, or a no-intervention control group. The intervention yielded significant effects on parenting and child behavior for maternal report. Marginally significant effects on child behavior were found for teacher report. The results show short-term effectiveness of parent training for the high-risk and hard-to-reach population of (formerly) incarcerated mothers and their children.

Effectiveness of the Incredible Years parent training to modify disruptive and prosocial child behavior: a meta-analytic review.

The present meta-analytic review examined effectiveness of the Incredible Years parent training (IYPT) regarding disruptive and prosocial child behavior, and aimed to explain variability in intervention outcomes. Fifty studies, in which an intervention group receiving the IYPT was compared to a comparison group immediately after intervention, were included in the analyses. Results showed that the IYPT is an effective intervention. Positive effects for distinct outcomes and distinct informants were found, including a mean effect size of d=.27 concerning disruptive child behavior across informants. For parental report, treatment studies were associated with larger effects (d=.50) than indicated (d=.20) and selective (d=.13) prevention studies. Furthermore, initial severity of child behavior revealed to be the strongest predictor of intervention effects, with larger effects for studies including more severe cases. Findings indicate that the IYPT is successful in improving child behavior in a diverse range of families, and that the parent program may be considered well-established.