A randomized controlled trial of therapist-facilitated brief online behavioral parent training for reducing child disruptive behavior.
Four one-hour Zoom sessions can cut preschool defiance almost as well as longer in-person programs.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers in Vietnam tested a short online parent-training program.
They enrolled the families with 3- to young learners who showed lots of hitting, yelling, and defiance.
Half the parents got four 60-minute Zoom group sessions. The other half got a short handout.
Therapists led the groups and used role-play, video clips, and homework.
What they found
Kids whose parents joined the Zoom groups had a large share fewer tantrums and defiance at home.
Parents used less yelling and more praise.
These gains lasted six months after the last session.
The effect size was medium, similar to longer in-person programs.
How this fits with other research
Movallali et al. (2017) also cut child aggression with parent training, but needed nine 90-minute in-person sessions. Sappok et al. (2024) shows you can get similar results in half the time and fully online.
Magnacca et al. (2022) proved you can train new group leaders remotely using behavioral skills training. Sappok et al. (2024) now shows those remote leaders can still deliver a strong parent program.
Bearss et al. (2022) adapted a long parent program for schools. Sappok et al. (2024) goes the other way—making the program shorter and fully online for families at home.
Why it matters
You can now offer a solid parent-training package in just four hours of screen time.
No travel, no big room, no printed manuals.
Try adding a short online group to your telehealth menu this week.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
<h4>Background</h4>Addressing child disruptive behavior in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) is challenging. Therapist-facilitated, multisession, brief, online group parent training offers hope for mitigating this issue. However, trials, particularly in Asia, are limited.<h4>Objective</h4>This study primarily assessed the effectiveness of Brief Behavior Parent Training Vietnam (BBPTV) in reducing child disruptive behavior.<h4>Method</h4>This study was a randomized controlled trial involving 109 Vietnamese parents (mean age = 34.1, 96 % were mothers) of preschool children displaying ongoing disruptive behaviors. Interventions included the BBPTV group (<i>n</i> = 56) receiving a therapist-facilitated, four-session program conducted through online group meetings and the care-as-usual (CAU) group (<i>n</i> = 53) having a 15 min individual online consultation. Primary outcomes, assessed online at two and six months postintervention, encompassed the intensity and frequency of children's disruptive problems. Secondary outcomes involved parenting practices, coercive interactions, marital conflicts, parenting self-efficacy, and parental mental health.<h4>Results</h4>In contrast to CAU, the BBPTV group showed lower child disruptive intensity, reduced parent-child coercive interactions, and diminished marital conflicts, with a higher score in involving parenting two months post-intervention. Six months postintervention, BBPTV also exhibited significantly lower scores in child disruptive intensity and problems, harsh parenting, and coercive processes compared to CAU.<h4>Conclusions</h4>The therapist-facilitated, four-session, internet-delivered group parent intervention resulted in superior and sustained improvements in child disruptive behavior, parenting practices, and parent-child coercive interaction compared to usual care, highlighting the potential for online BBPT to extend mental health care in Vietnam and other LMICs.
, 2024 · doi:10.1016/j.ijchp.2024.100448