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Drop-out from parenting training programmes : a retrospective study

journal contribution
posted on 2009-01-01, 00:00 authored by P Friars, David MellorDavid Mellor
Objective: Parent training programmes are a well-established treatment approach for children and adolescents with disruptive behaviour disorders. However, dropout from treatment is a common problem that confounds research on the efficacy of this approach, and wastes important mental health resources. This study sought to further our understanding of the reasons why parents drop out of parent training programmes.

Method:
Nine parents of children with disruptive behaviour disorders who had dropped out of a parent training programme were interviewed to investigate why they discontinued the programme.

Results: Parents who dropped out of treatment believed that their children were more difficult than other children with the same disorder and may have been better suited to a child-focused intervention. The parents themselves had very stressful lives, with the majority being single mothers with little support. Dropout parents also had difficulty with the group context and putting strategies into place. Practical concerns included parking, timing of session and the length and number of sessions.

Conclusions: The findings are discussed in terms of what modifications can be made to these programmes to increase retention.

History

Journal

Journal of child and adolescent mental health

Volume

21

Issue

1

Pagination

29 - 38

Publisher

National Inquiry Services Centre

Location

Grahamstown, South Africa

ISSN

1728-0583

eISSN

1728-0591

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal; C Journal article

Copyright notice

2009, NISC Pty Ltd

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