Mothers and their disturbed preschool children: an intervention study

Children who had attended a unit for disturbed preschool children were followed up and compared to a group of children whose families had turned down the offer of a place at the unit. Measures of home and school behaviour and of social stress factors operating on the family were collected. Although treated and control children were comparable on severity of symptoms on referral, treated children showed a greater reduction in reported problem behaviour at home than did controls by the time of the follow-up interview. Attendance at the unit had a limited effect on behavior at school, however. It is suggested that if a treatment for preschool children is to have broad goals including increased competence at school as well as a reduction in problem behaviour at home, then various treatment strategies should be devised to meet these different goals.