Treatment Outcome for Low Socioeconomic Status African American Families in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The course and efficacy of parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) were examined in 18 socioeconomically disadvantaged African American families of preschoolers with disruptive behavior disorders. Mothers reported significant improvements in child disruptive behavior but not in maternal depressive symptoms or parenting stress. Attrition was 56%, most often occurring after pre-treatment assessment but before treatment began. Results suggest that PCIT may lead to positive behavior changes for disadvantaged young African American children when families complete treatment. Recruitment, engagement, and retention remain significant problems requiring further study. Reduction of parenting stress also requires study in this population.

KEYWORDS:

• African American families
• disruptive behavior disorders
• oppositional defiant disorder
• parent training
• parent-child interaction therapy
• preschool-age children
• socioeconomic disadvantage
• treatment outcome

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the members of the Child Study Laboratory for their contributions to this study, which was funded by National Institute of Mental Health grants (RO1 MH46727, RO1 MH60632), awarded to Sheila Eyberg.

Notes

^a Reliable change is calculated by dividing the amount of change from pretreatment to posttreatment by the standard error of the difference score (Jacobson et al., 1999).

^b Clinically significant change is defined as demonstrating reliable change from the clinical range at pretreatment to the normal range at posttreatment (Jacobson et al., 1999).