The Impact of Increased Treatment Intensity on a Parent and Child Therapy Program

While the literature suggests that the leading parent child therapy (PCT) programs effectively change parental behaviors, improve young children’s behavior problems, and stop the cycle of escalation and chronicity, it appears that treatment programs for behavior problems are not universally effective for those seeking treatment and may not meet the individual needs of all children and their families. Despite findings that treatment intensity predicts positive treatment outcomes (Medalia & Richardson, 2005) there is dearth of studies that examine treatment intensity in the context of PCT. To date, the role of treatment intensity in PCT programs is not known and the question of whether greater doses of treatment are associated with superior response in these programs has yet to be explored. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of treatment intensity on outcomes in a treatment program for low-income children age five years and younger with externalizing behavior problems, the majority of whom have a developmental disability. Specifically, this research will study treatment outcomes for individuals participating in an individualized-format of the Parenting Young Children (PYC) program (Fox & Nicholson, 2003) provided at two different intensity levels. In order to assess whether there are differential outcomes based on the amount of treatment received, participants will be placed in one of two groups: standard treatment (receiving eight, once-weekly treatment sessions) or intensity treatment (receiving eight, twice-weekly and four, once-weekly treatment sessions)