Reduction of attention deficit and internalizing symptoms in preschoolers through parent-child interaction training

A preventive mental health intervention was tested with low income parent-child dyads. Parents who were having a problem with the behavior of their preschool child were recruited; 89 parents, of 96 children, completed pre- and postintervention assessments. Families were randomly assigned to a "minimal treatment" control group or a more extensive treatment experimental group. Parent training was supervised by the authors and delivered by paraprofessionals using standard treatment manuals. The more extensive intervention produced significantly more improvement in parents' ratings of children's symptoms of attention deficit and internalizing symptoms than did the control intervention. A blind measure of videotaped interaction between parent and child also demonstrated significantly more improvement from the experimental intervention. Both groups improved with respect to parents' ratings of children's oppositional symptoms. Change in parent ratings of children's behavior was correlated with change in blind observers' ratings in parents' behavior.