Effectiveness of the Incredible Years Parenting Program to Reduce Disruptive Behavior in Ethnic Minority and Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Families

Introduction: Ethnic minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged families are hard to reach for the prevention and treatment of disruptive child behavior problems. We examined whether the Incredible Years parent training program is equally effective across families with different ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic status, and referral status (i.e., referred or recruited).

Methods: One hundred fifty four families were randomly assigned to the Incredible Years parent training or a waiting list control condition. Children were 3-8 years old (M = 5.59; SD = 1.35; 62% boys; 66% ethnic minorities) and 65% met DSM-IV criteria for ODD, CD and/or ADHD. One third of the families was referred to an outpatient mental health clinic for disruptive child behavior; two third of the families was actively recruited for this study’s purposes. This combined approach allowed us to examine the extent to which referral status (i.e., referred or recruited) matters for program effectiveness.

Results: Incredible Years reduced parent reported disruptive behavior and teacher reported hyperactive and inattentive behavior. Importantly, Incredible Years was equally effective across families with different ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic status, and for referred and recruited families. Recruitment procedures thus did not affect program effectiveness. Effects were maintained at three month follow-up.

Conclusions: This study shows that although engaging ethnic minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged families in parent training programs can be challenging, these families can benefit from parent training programs as much as referred families. We discuss the promises (e.g., possibilities for direct comparison) and limitations (e.g., dealing with confounding variables) of combining families from different recruitment methods within one trial.