The impact of parental cognitions on outcomes of behavioral parent training for children with conduct problems

Despite decades of support for behavioral parent training, studies consistently comprise a proportion of families who do not experience sustained improvement in child conduct problems. Recent innovations to enhance treatment effects use predictors of treatment response to guide efforts to personalize treatment. We investigated whether baseline parental cognitions predicted response to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) in a sample of N = 61 children (M = 4.78 years, SD = 1.23, 74% boys) with conduct problems. Families received PCIT at an Australian urban university-based clinic. Parental positive and negative relational schemas were coded from baseline 5-minute speech samples. Linear mixed-effects models showed that mothers’ unhelpful cognitions predicted significantly less improvement in child conduct problems and internalizing problems, parenting stress, and observed parenting behaviors from baseline to follow-up. In contrast, children of fathers with unhelpful cognitions began treatment with more severe problems than other children, but experienced similar or greater magnitude of improvement in child conduct problems, paternal parenting stress, and observed paternal negative parenting behaviors during treatment relative to other children. Findings suggest that PCIT may be a useful alternative to parent-only behavioral parent training for fathers with unhelpful cognitions. We also discuss methods for tailoring PCIT for mothers with unhelpful cognitions to enhance treatment effects. These trials were registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry (ACTRN12616000280404; ACTRN12616000221459).