Prevention of behavior problems in a selected population: Stepping stones triple P for parents of young children with disabilities.
SSTP gives EI families a small parenting tune-up, not a behavior cure.
01Research in Context
What this study did
McGonigle et al. (2014) tested Stepping Stones Triple P (SSTP) in two Early Intervention sites. Therapists visited families at home and taught parents positive parenting skills.
Parents of babies and toddlers with mixed disabilities joined the study. Half got SSTP right away. Half waited and served as the control group.
What they found
One year later, SSTP gave only small, spotty gains in child behavior. The clearest win was warmer parent-child play, not fewer tantrums.
Parent stress and parenting style moved in the right direction, but the changes were modest and not steady across every family.
How this fits with other research
Perez et al. (2015) also sent trainers into homes and saw fast, big drops in problem behavior with the PTR plan. Their single-case design let them tweak the plan child-by-child, while SSTP used a fixed group class.
Mruzek et al. (2019) tried a 12-week parent program for toddlers with autism. Like SSTP, they found only small gains in child skills, but parents felt more empowered.
Hornstra et al. (2023) pulled apart parent-training pieces for older kids with ADHD. Adding praise and ignore did not beat antecedent tricks alone. This matches SSTP’s weak child effects: more coaching hours may not help if the mix of tools is not right for the age.
Why it matters
If you run Early Intervention, do not expect SSTP alone to wipe out severe behavior. Use it as a light first layer that boosts parent-child warmth, then layer on individualized tactics like PTR when problem behavior persists. Track parent stress as your main near-term win, not child symptom counts.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Because young children with disabilities are at elevated risk for development of challenging behaviors, and caregivers of these children typically lack access to evidence-based parenting interventions, two randomized trials were conducted to examine the impact of an evidence-based parenting intervention, Stepping Stones Triple P (SSTP), as a selective preventive intervention. Both studies targeted parents of children under two with a variety of disabilities who were enrolled in the IDEA Part C Early Intervention (EI) system in one state. SSTP was delivered in family homes. In Study One, 49 families were randomly assigned to EI services as usual, with or without SSTP; a 52% attrition rate from treatment was seen. No significant between-group differences were seen aside from a trend toward reduced symptoms of parental depression at follow-up. Intervention group children demonstrated significant decline in behavior problems from post treatment to follow-up, and there was a trend toward improved parenting style in the intervention group during this same time frame. Study Two incorporated a separate workforce intervention for EI service coordinators; 40 families on their caseloads were then randomly assigned to receive EI services as usual with or without SSTP. Attrition from treatment was limited to 20%. No differential impact was seen on child behavior; a trend was noted post-treatment on parent symptoms of depression and on the observed parent-child relationship. At 12-month follow-up, there was a trend favoring improvement in the intervention group in parenting style; statistically significant impact was also seen on the observed quality of the parent-child relationship. SSTP shows promise as a selective preventive intervention for an early intervention population. Reasons for the differential findings between the two studies are explored and suggestions for future research are provided.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.07.036