Parent Preferences and Family Engagement in a Conduct Problems Prevention Program

DCISR for Adaptive Intervention Models in Children's Mental Health

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of family preferences for and engagement in services.

The overarching goal of this pilot project is to elucidate factors that influence families' engagement in indicated prevention/early intervention programming for youth conduct problems. We will explore factors previously shown to influence engagement, including parent motivational cognitions, family context variables, and preferences for intervention type. Study aims are organized around a randomized preference trial with a parallel hybrid design structure (see Abikoff, 2001). Families with youth ages 5-12, referred to community mental health clinics in Michigan, will be invited to participate in a prevention study. Families who chose to participate were assigned at random to preference (i.e. choice) or no preference (i.e. no choice) conditions. Those randomly assigned to the preference condition were allowed to choose between four intervention options: clinic-based services-as-usual (youth intervention); individual, home-based Oregon Parent Management Training (PMTO; Patterson, 2005), individual, clinic-based PMTO, and in-person group-based PMTO (Parenting Through Change; Forgatch & DeGarmo, 1999). Families in the no-choice condition were randomly assigned to one of the same four conditions.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Families with at least one child between the ages of 5 and 12.
• Referral to community mental health clinic (specifically, to one of the project partner clinics)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Active psychosis
• Serious child mental health diagnosis
• Open child protection case for abuse or neglect