Evaluating a Brief Behavioral Parenting Program for Parents of School-aged Children with ADHD

SYNOPSIS

Objective. Typical parenting programs require considerable time inputs, which can be a significant barrier to program access. Here we assessed whether a brief behavioral parenting program, 1-2-3 Magic, would be effective in reducing disruptive behavior and ADHD symptoms in school-aged children with ADHD and dysfunctional parenting in their parents. Design. Fifty-seven parents of children aged 6–12 years were randomly allocated to the treatment group (n= 28) or waitlist-control group (n= 29). Treatment-group parents participated in the 1-2-3 Magic group program over three consecutive weeks. Treatment-group data were collected at pre-, post-intervention, and 6-month follow-up, and control-group data were collected at pre- and post-intervention, with child and parental behavior change assessed using the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, Parent Stress Index, and Conners. Results. Parents in the treatment-group reported less child disruptive behavior, reduced child ADHD symptom severity, and less dysfunctional parenting at post-intervention compared with controls. Post-intervention results indicated that the major intervention effects were maintained at the 6-month follow-up. Conclusions. Findings provide preliminary treatment efficacy for this brief behavioral parenting intervention for school-aged children with ADHD and their parents.

ADDRESSES AND AFFILIATIONS

Richard James Stevenson, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109. Email: [email protected]. Julie A. Chesterfield is at Macquarie University, Renata Porzig-Drummond is at the Australian College of Applied Psychology, and Caroline S. Stevenson is at Royal Far West Children’s Health.

ARTICLE INFORMATION

Conflict of Interest Disclosure

Each author signed a form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. No authors reported any financial or other conflicts of interest in relation to the work described.

Ethical Principles

The authors affirm having followed professional ethical guidelines in preparing this work. These guidelines include obtaining informed consent from human participants, maintaining ethical treatment and respect for the rights of human and animal participants, and ensuring the privacy of participants and their data, such as ensuring that individual participants cannot be identified in reported results or from publicly available original or archival data.