Functional analytic psychotherapy among mothers with children with disruptive behavior

Abstract

Children’s mental problems remain one of the central topics in governments’ agendas because of their negative impact at social and economic levels. The present paper is a single case study, with A-B design with concurrent control through behaviors and participants, aimed to identify the effect of the Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) on four mothers who informed about their children’s disruptive behaviors in the school setting. A case-control who received psychoeducation-based intervention was included in order to observe outcome differences among participants regarding the implemented treatment. Using the FIAT-Q and functional analysis, participants’ problematic behaviors were identified. Mothers treated with FAP were expected to display behavioral changes within the sessions and generalized them to the natural context in the interaction with their children in order to promote children’s prosocial behaviors. Results indicated that FAP reduced the frequency of mothers’ problematic behaviors and, in turn, children reduced disruptive behaviors. Implications of the study results are discussed both at theoretical and applied levels.