Effectiveness of Selective Prevention: A Trial of Parent Training for Mothers Being Released from Incarceration

Introduction: Behavioral parent training has been proven to be the most effective intervention method for pre-school and school-aged youth with antisocial behavior problems. In this presentation, we focus on one specific program: the Incredible Years parent training (IYPT). This program has seen widespread growth and is used and studied internationally as a treatment for children with severe conduct problems, as well as a preventive intervention. The program is considered a “blueprint” for violence prevention.

Children of incarcerated mothers are considered one of the most at-risk populations for disruptive behavior problems and later delinquency. Therefore, selective prevention – using an evidence-based parent training for this hard-to-reach population – seems obvious to break the intergenerational cycle of crime.

In this presentation, the effectiveness of the IYPT as a selective prevention program is examined in two ways. First, meta-analytic evidence regarding associations between study context and short-term effectiveness of the IYPT is shown. Second, illustrative findings from a trial of parent training for mothers being released from incarceration are shown.

Methods: Fifty studies, in which an intervention group receiving the IYPT was compared to a comparison group immediately after intervention, were included in the analyses. These studies were coded as treatment, selective prevention or indicated prevention to allow examination of differential effectiveness regarding study context.

In the illustrative, nationwide trial, mothers of one hundred-thirty-three children (M age = 76.91 months; 48.9% boys) were assigned to enhanced IYPT or a no-intervention control group.

Results: Effect sizes differed significantly for study context. Treatment studies were associated with larger effects (d = .50) than indicated (d = .20) and selective (d = .13) prevention studies.

In the illustrative trial, the intervention yielded significant effects on parenting and child behavior for maternal report (e.g., d = .47 for intensity of disruptive child behavior in per-protocol analyses). Marginally significant effects on child behavior were found for teacher report.

Conclusions: The results from our meta-analyses show that the IYPT is effective. However, relatively small effect sizes were found for selective prevention studies. The results of the illustrative, selective prevention trial show short-term effectiveness of parent training for the high-risk and hard-to-reach population of (formerly) incarcerated mothers and their children. These results may be considered substantial. We discuss possible explanations for established differences (e.g., initial levels of problem behavior, setting and motivational issues) and argue that the IYPT can be used successfully in a diverse range of families, including as a selective prevention.