Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Parents' Acceptance And Preference Of Child Vs. Parent-Focused Treatment For Disruptive Behaviors, Ami Zala M.S.

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Externalizing behaviors compose about half of all mental health referrals for children (Connor, 2002). Behavioral parent training (BPT) is an efficacious treatment that prevents and treats externalizing disorders (Daley et al., 2014). Nonetheless, dropout rates are high; approximately 26% of parents prematurely end treatment (Chacko et al., 2016). Anecdotally, clinicians speculate parents often expect minimal involvement in their child’s treatment for behavioral problems, perhaps contributing to premature termination. Exploring parents’ perception of BPT, where a parent learns skills, and an alternative treatment, where a child learns skills, is therefore needed; however, no study has done so. It was hypothesized that …