What Are the Effects of a Parent-Implemented Verbal Responsive Intervention on Preschoolers With Externalizing Behavior Problems?

ABSTRACT

This research was conducted to assess the impact of a parent-based verbal responsive intervention, aiming to enhance parents’ responsiveness and communication strategies, by way of a sample of parents and their preschool-aged children with a clinical level of externalizing behavior problems. Twenty-one parents received the intervention, consisting of eight 1.5-hour sessions. The study tested the hypothesis that the intervention led to an improvement in parenting variables and a decrease in children’s behavior problems, assessed by a multimethod procedure. The results partially confirmed the prediction, as they showed an enhancement of parents’ responsiveness and parent self-efficacy belief, which are promising findings, but no modifications of negative practices. These effects persisted for 4 months after the intervention. Moreover, a decrease in children’s externalizing behavior problems was reported by parents in a questionnaire, but this was not confirmed by an observational paradigm. This last result seems to show that a parent-implemented verbal responsive intervention is necessary for some children with externalizing behavior difficulties but often insufficient, and has to be part of a multidisciplinary treatment approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Externalizing behavior problems
• parent-implemented verbal responsive intervention
• parenting
• preschoolers
• responsiveness
• self-efficacy belief

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the families who participated in the study and to our many sponsors for the gifts that we could offer our participants (Alice Délice, Martin’s Spa, Tao, Libris Agora, Musée Hergé, Musée de Louvain-la-Neuve, Promosport, Bayard Milan). The authors also thank Sophie Hancisse, Auriane De Pierpont, and Anne-Sophie Tilmant for facilitating the parent-implemented intervention sessions.