An Exploration of Parent Management Training Programs and Their Cultural Relevance

Behavioral parent training is a research-supported treatment for improving child behavior and increasing parenting skills. Despite many programs sharing a theoretical foundation and common elements, there is great variety in terms of treatment targets, populations served, treatment length, delivery setting, and expected outcomes. The purpose of this research was to first systematically organize and categorize relevant program information for the most frequently referenced Parent Management Training (PMT) programs. To this end, 19 programs were identified for review. We summarized each program and their available research evidence which ranged from 1 to 72 studies. The findings from this first project informed the development of the second, which investigated the generalizability and applicability of PMT programs to non-White populations. We learned that the evidence for communities of color was significantly limited because people of color represented a small part of those studied or their information was not presented independently. We conclude that although the behavioral parent training literature for white individuals is robust and varied, this is disproportionately not the case for individuals of color