Term of Award

Summer 2020

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.)

Document Type and Release Option

Dissertation (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

C. Thresa Yancey

Committee Member 1

Dorthie Cross

Committee Member 2

Jeff Klibert

Abstract

Childhood behavior problems are pervasive with 50% of non-referred families citing noncompliance and behavior problems as an issue (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1981). Many behavioral parent trainings (BPTs) treat these behaviors at an early age. Recently, adaptions to BPTs include group formats increasing accessibility and decreasing cost, especially for rural families with limited resources (Niec, Barnett, Prewett, & Stanley Chatham, 2016). Beyond BPTs, Alvord, Zucker, and Johnson Grados (2011) developed the Resilience Builder Program to enhance children’s social, emotional, and behavioral skills through a cognitive behavioral framework. The Resilience Builder Program improves anxious and depressive symptoms and reduces behavior problems in children (Watson, Rich, Sanchez, O’Brien, & Alvord, 2013). Although researchers (Borden, Schultz, Herman, & Brooks, 2010) theorized about the suitability for combining BPTs and resilience training, no such study examining the combination of these interventions exists to date. The current study sought to examine the effectiveness of a group treatment combining BPT and resilience training on reducing parental stress and child externalizing behaviors and increasing children’s resilience. A six-week group treatment format consisting of a parent training only group (e.g., Standard Group) and a parent training plus resilience group (e.g., Resilience Group) was utilized to determine the change in child externalizing behaviors, parental stress, and resilience. Multiple 2 (Group Type: Standard; Resilience) X 3 (Time: pre-; mid-; post) factorial ANOVAs were used to analyze the data. Results demonstrated no significant interactions between Group Type (Standard; Resilience) X Time (pre-; mid-; post) for parent stress, children’s resilience, or children’s externalizing behaviors. Significant main effects of Time were found across groups demonstrating a significant decrease in parental stress and children’s externalizing behaviors, and a significant increase in children’s resilience. However, when child age was included as a covariate, these effects did not hold. While there are limitations based on sample size (N = 15) and a lack of control group, there appears to be promising support for using shortened, group-based interventions in the treatment of externalizing behaviors among children. These results indicate BPT alone may be effective in increasing childhood resilience. Future research should aim to address limitations.

OCLC Number

1103526800

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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