One-Year Follow-Up of Guided Self-Help for Parents of Preschool Children With Externalizing Behavior

Elena Ise, Frauke Kierfeld, Manfred Döpfner

Self-help programs are an effective intervention for parents of children with externalizing behavior. A number of studies have shown that self-administered parent training has positive short-term effects on a child's behavior, but there is little research done on long-term outcomes. This paper reports results from a 1-year follow-up of a randomized controlled prevention trial of self-administered parent training with minimal therapist contact. In the initial prevention trial, we randomly assigned 48 preschool children with elevated levels of externalizing behavior to either a treatment group (TG) or a waitlist control group (WLC). The intervention consisted of written material and brief weekly telephone consultations. Thirty-six families (25 TG families, 11 WLC families) completed the self-help program. Twenty-five of these participated in a follow-up assessment 1 year after the intervention. There were no significant changes from post-test to follow-up on measures of child behavior (e.g., Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder symptom rating scales) and parental mental health, indicating that gains achieved post-intervention were maintained for at least 1 year. Moreover, the percentage of children with substantial behavior problems was reduced from pre-intervention to follow-up. These findings provide evidence that telephone-assisted self-help programs can be effective in the prevention of disruptive behavior problems.