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A Dynamic Systems Analysis of Parent–child Changes Associated with Successful “Real-world” Interventions for Aggressive Children

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Abstract

Studies have shown that improved parenting mediates treatment outcomes for aggressive children, but we lack fine-grained descriptions of how parent–child interactions change with treatment. The current study addresses this gap by applying new dynamic systems methods to study parent–child emotional behavior patterns. These methods tap moment-to-moment changes in interaction processes within and across sessions and quantify previously unmeasured processes of change related to treatment success. Aggressive children and their parents were recruited from combined Parent Management Training and Cognitive-behavioral programs in “real world” clinical settings. Behavioral outcomes were assessed by reports from parents and clinicians. At pre- and post-treatment, home visits were videotaped while parents and children discussed consecutively: a positive topic, a mutually unresolved problem, and another positive topic. Results showed that significant improvements in children’s externalizing behavior were associated with increases in parent–child emotional flexibility during the problem-solving discussion. Also, dyads who improved still expressed negative emotions, but they acquired the skills to repair conflicts, shifting out of their negative interactions to mutually positive patterns.

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Notes

  1. To increase incentives to participate in the research, we had initially wanted to pay families more for their participation. However, because this study was conducted in the community, the IRB limited payment considerably in order to minimize the potential coerciveness that a large sum of money would represent to poorer families.

  2. Note that the labeling of cells follows the x/y convention such that the first term represents the child’s code and the second term represents the parent’s code.

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Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of Grant 1 R21 MH 67357 from the National Institute of Mental Health and Grant MOP-62930 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. We are also deeply indebted to the clinical directors and clinicians at the community mental health agencies that partnered with us; they championed this research and helped us realize our collective goal of bridging theory, research and practice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Community Health Systems Resource Group, Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 1X8, Canada

    Isabela Granic & Arland O’Hara

  2. Department of Psychology, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON, M5G 1X8, Canada

    Debra Pepler

  3. Human Development and Applied Psychology, OISE/University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON, M5S 2T3, Canada

    Marc D. Lewis

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  1. Isabela Granic
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  2. Arland O’Hara
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Correspondence to Isabela Granic.

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Granic, I., O’Hara, A., Pepler, D. et al. A Dynamic Systems Analysis of Parent–child Changes Associated with Successful “Real-world” Interventions for Aggressive Children. J Abnorm Child Psychol 35, 845–857 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-007-9133-4

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