Disruptive child behavior severity and parenting program session attendance: Individual participant data...

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Parenting Interventions

Background:

• Parenting group programs aim to improve child behavior.
• Understanding factors influencing parental engagement is crucial for program effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if baseline child behavior problem severity predicts parental attendance in the Incredible Years parenting program.
• To explore how child-level and trial-level problem severity impact session attendance.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from 12 randomized trials of the Incredible Years program in Europe.
• Utilized multilevel Poisson regression with Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory scores to assess child and trial-level problem severity.
• Examined linear and quadratic forms and cross-level interactions.

Main Results:

• Parents of children with the least and most severe problems attended fewer sessions within trials.
• Higher average child behavior problem severity across trials was associated with increased attendance.
• Child sex, age, and family income did not significantly alter attendance patterns.

Conclusions:

• Parental engagement in group programs is generally higher for more challenging child behaviors, but engagement wanes at the extremes of severity.
• Further research is needed to understand how attendance variations affect program benefits for families with the least or most severe child behavior problems.