Randomized trial of two parent-training programs for families with conduct-disordered children.

Department of Parent and Child NursingUniversity of WashingtonClinic mothers of 35 conduct-disordered children were randomly assigned to awaiting list control group, 9 weeks of individual therapy, or 9 weeks of therapist-led group therapy based on a standardized videotape modeling program. Mothersand their children were assessed at baseline, immediately after treatment, and 1year later by home visits, twice-per-week telephone reports, and questionnaires.One month after treatment, both groups of treated mothers showed significantattitudinal and behavioral improvements compared with untreated controls. Ad-ditionally, the children in the two treatment groups showed reductions in childnoncompliance compared with control children. At the 1-year follow-up, not onlywere most of the changes in mothers' behaviors maintained, but both treatmentgroups of children continued to show significant reductions in noncompliant anddeviant behaviors. There were no significant differences on any of the attitudinalor behavioral measures between individual and videotape modeling group discussiontherapies at the immediate or 1-year follow-up. Total therapist time was approx-imately 251 hr for the entire individual group and 48 hr for the entire videotapediscussion group. Although both treatments seem to offer equivalent and sustainedimprovements for parents and conduct-disordered children, the therapeutic efficiencyof the videotape modeling group format is more cost-effective.In response to the large numbers of childrenwith conduct disorders and the shortage ofprofessional personnel, there has been an in-creasing emphasis on training parents as ther-apists for their own children. Several excellentreviews (Berkowitz Gra-ziano, 1977; Johnson KMoreland,Schwebel, Beck, Pawlicki,