The aims of this application are to obtain career development support to examine factors that influence help-seeking for Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD). A critical divergence exists between the prevalence and severity of ODD and CD and the degree to which children with these problems are engaged in treatment. These disorders are among the most prevalent for those in treatment or incarcerated, yet the proportion of children with ODD or CD who are in treatment is relatively low, and knowledge of the processes involved in engagement for treatment for ODD and CD is limited. Parents play a significant role in seeking out help for children's mental health problems, and their cognitions regarding behavioral disorders and treatment impacts their help-seeking behavior. Their cognitions may also be influenced by the type of disruptive behavior a child displays. The candidate proposes training and development in the empirical analysis of service delivery for disruptive behavior to help understand and guide interventions to modify these processes. The candidate, a clinical psychologist and project coordinator at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, is trained in the assessment and treatment of ODD and CD, is involved in decision-making regarding types of services for children, and is trained as a researcher in developmental psychopathology.
The specific aims of the training component of this proposal are to develop expertise in services research, including help-seeking behaviors, for high-risk youth, to become expert in the study and development of subtypes and pathways within ODD and CD behaviors, and to develop mastery of advanced statistical techniques suitable for sophisticated analysis of longitudinal clustered data and model development. The development and training program will include training under the direction of experts in the field of services research, disruptive behavior and developmental models of symptom subtypes, and advanced statistical analyses. Two studies 'will be undertaken: a secondary data analyses of a large scale longitudinal community research project, and a pilot study of new data collection in a sample of 150 children recruited from juvenile justice and specialty mental health venues. It is anticipated that these studies will provide novel information about factors which enhance or impede parental decisions about seeking help for children, and will inform efforts to intervene in the development of disruptive behavior in children in a more timely fashion. By completing the proposed training program, the candidate will attain a comprehensive knowledge base regarding help-seeking for ODD and CD, and will be poised to design interventions to improve treatment engagement and treatment matching for children with these disorders.
