Reducing Problematic Parenting Behaviors, Child Neglect, and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems in Multisystemic Therapy for Child Abuse and Neglect

Abstract

Multisystemic Therapy for Child Abuse and Neglect (MST-CAN) has been shown to effectively reduce social worker-assessed child neglect and child problems. However, no research has examined the effects of MST-CAN on parenting behaviors or identified which intervention targets are associated with reductions in child problems. This study examined changes in child internalizing and externalizing problems, parental psychological control, neglectful parenting, and social worker-assessed neglect, accounting for therapist effects, and assessed how parenting and neglect predict child outcomes in 143 parent-child dyads in Switzerland (mean child age = 10.5 years, 54.1% boys). Multilevel regression showed significant reductions in social worker-assessed neglect (b = 14.10, SE = 3.49, p < .001) and child problems (b = 4.97, SE = 0.88, p < .001) with low intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC = .049, ICC = .017). Neglectful parenting (b = 0.03, SE = 0.05, p = .640) and psychological control (b = 0.10, SE = 0.07, p = .140) were not significantly reduced. Parenting and social worker assessed neglect did not affect changes in child problems. Findings demonstrate MST-CAN’s effectiveness in reducing social worker-assessed neglect and child problems but highlight the need for targeting psychological control and multi-method and multi-informant assessments of parenting behaviors.