Keeping an "I" on PRIDE: Measuring Imitation in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

In parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), therapists encourage parents to imitate child behaviors in order to convey approval of the child's actions and promote the development of linguistic and social-cognitive skills. However, the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS-IV), used to measure skills taught during PCIT, does not include guidelines for coding parent-child imitation, making it difficult to determine how PCIT affects it. The current study addresses this problem by developing guidelines for coding imitation, which were then used to code DPICS-IV segments from 58 Mexican American families that participated in a past clinical trial. Results suggest that these coding guidelines can be used to reliably measure parent and child imitation. A series of additional analyses supported the construct validity of the codes. Specifically, there was a trend for parent imitation, but not child imitation, to increase more from pre-post treatment in PCIT relative to treatment as usual. In addition, parents who imitate their children were found to have children who imitate them more in return. Finally, improvement in parent imitation, but not child imitation, was significantly related to a decrease in child behavior problems. Further study is needed to determine the optimal frequency of imitation, and findings suggest that additional attention to coaching imitation may be warranted.