The purpose of this competing renewal is to document the effectiveness of short-term interventions for non-psychiatrically disturbed firesetters and to test existing approaches used in clinical and community settings. The content of intervention is based on findings from the previous assessment and follow-up grant study of firesetting and nonfiresetting children (MH39976). One hundred and twenty child firesetters (aged 7-12) will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) Fire Safety Education (FSE), 2) Psychosocial Treatment intervention will be short-term, executed by trained specialists for each approach (firefighters, therapists) using program manuals, monitored to ensure therapeutic integrity, and evaluated using multiple measures from multiple sources. Pre-post comparisons will be supplemented with both 3- and 12-month follow-up data. The primary aim is to compare the impact of each intervention on the child involvement with fire and the severity of firesetting, and secondarily, on primary psychosocial correlates of firesetting (e.g., fire risk factors, interpersonal repertoire and antisocial behavior, and parent/family stress). It is hypothesized that FSE and PT, relative to FOT, will be superior in reducing fire involvement at follow-up both at home and in the community, and that PT will be superior to FSE or FOT in reducing the psychosocial correlates of firesetting.
The second aim i s to derive the predictors of firesetting recidivism for each condition and moderating variables to document client x intervention interactions using background and posttreatment variables (e.g., fire safety knowledge, curiosity about fire, antisocial behavior). As such, it is believed that this proposal represents the first such treatment outcome evaluation study for this population and may facilitate the matching of clients to treatment.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH039976-08
Application #
2244841
Study Section
Treatment Development and Assessment Research Review Committee (TDA)
Project Start
1985-02-15
Project End
1995-11-30
Budget Start
1992-12-01
Budget End
1995-05-31
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
1993
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pittsburgh
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
053785812
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213
Kolko, D J (2001) Efficacy of cognitive-behavioral treatment and fire safety education for children who set fires: initial and follow-up outcomes. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 42:359-69
Kolko, D J; Day, B T; Bridge, J A et al. (2001) Two-year prediction of children's firesetting in clinically referred and nonreferred samples. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 42:371-80
Kolko, D J; Kazdin, A E (1994) Children's descriptions of their firesetting incidents: characteristics and relationship to recidivism. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 33:114-22
Kolko, D J; Kazdin, A E (1993) Emotional/behavioral problems in clinic and nonclinic children: correspondence among child, parent and teacher reports. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 34:991-1006
Kolko, D J; Kazdin, A E (1992) The emergence and recurrence of child firesetting: a one-year prospective study. J Abnorm Child Psychol 20:17-37
Kolko, D J; Kazdin, A E (1991) Motives of childhood firesetters: firesetting characteristics and psychological correlates. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 32:535-50
Kolko, D J; Kazdin, A E (1989) The children's firesetting interview with psychiatrically referred and nonreferred children. J Abnorm Child Psychol 17:609-24
Kolko, D J; Kazdin, A E (1989) Assessment of dimensions of childhood firesetting among patients and nonpatients: the Firesetting Risk Interview. J Abnorm Child Psychol 17:157-76
Kolko, D J; Kazdin, A E (1988) Prevalence of firesetting and related behaviors among child psychiatric patients. J Consult Clin Psychol 56:628-30
Kolko, D J; Kazdin, A E (1988) Parent-child correspondence in identification of firesetting among child psychiatric patients. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 29:175-84

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