Parent-training interventions

Abstract

Prior to the 1960s, therapy for children typically involved traditional one-on-one sessions with a therapist addressing intrapsychic issues rather than specific behaviors (Kotchick, Shaffer, Dorsey, & Forehand, 2004). However, in the early 1960s a paradigm shift started in regard to psychosocial treatment for children's behavior problems. This paradigm shift was the function of several factors (Kotchick et al., 2004) including a growing concern that traditional psychodynamic approaches were not very effective in addressing immediate issues related to children's behavior problems nor in changing children's behavior in the home. Around the same time period, behavior modification techniques were beginning to be successfully utilized to change children's behavior (Williams, 1959). The confluence of such factors created momentum for the concept of therapists training parents to utilize specific behavior management techniques to change their children's' behavior. By the mid- to late-1960s the use of parents as formal behavior change agents for their children's behavior started to take hold and the roots of parent training were established (Hawkins, Peterson, Schweid, & Bijou, 1966; Wahler, Winkel, Peterson, & Morrison, 1965). Although most of the early research in parent training was conducted by those coming from a behavioral orientation, it should be noted that the use of parents as change agents was also advocated by professionals from various orientations including those coming from a psychodynamic perspective (e.g., Zacker, 1978). © 2009 Springer New York.