The Rational Positive Parenting Program

Abstract

Cognitive-behavioral parenting interventions represent the treatment of choice for addressing externalizing disorders of childhood (see NICE 2008; 2013), and their effectiveness has been well documented by many research reviews (Thomas and Zimmer-Gembeck 2007; Webster-Stratton 2002). However, some researchers proposed (see Lovejoy et al. 2000) that integrating a focus on the emotion-regulation strategies used by parents could enhance the effects of these parenting programs, and such an addition would maximize the short-term and long-term effects of these interventions. In this book, we describe how Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (RE&CBT)-based parenting interventions have historically addressed the emotional disturbances of parents (Joyce 1995) that interfere with effective parenting, and how the recent advances in clinical cognitive sciences are relevant to this topic (Gavita et al. 2011). We place a special emphasis on the evidence-based status of the parenting programs for chil- dren with externalizing disorders (Gavita et al. 2012). We present an overview of the Rational Positive Parenting Program, describe its underlying evidence base, and explain how it addresses externalizing disorders in children in clinical practice. The research and contents of the curricula of the Rational Positive Parenting Program (Gavita et al. 2013) are presented in detail, based on its standard format (Gavita 2011), short format (Gavita et al. 2012), and self-help/online format (Gavita and Calin 2013), each of which have been investigated in clinical trials. We present the Rational Positive Parenting Program along with the evidence base that underlies the approach and we explain how it addresses externalizing disorders in children in clinical practice.