Individuals with mental retardation/developmental disabilities (MR/DD) are 3-4 times more likely to develop a behavior problem or mental health disorder (BP/MH) than typically developing individuals, placing them at risk for a number of negative outcomes (e.g., social isolation, vocational difficulties). Some evidence suggests that these behavior problems begin in early childhood and negatively impact parents. Left untreated, children are at risk for developing a behavior disorder or mental illness, which places significant burden on caregivers and increases the likelihood of out-of-home placement or costly treatment. The proposed study will utilize parent training as an early intervention (secondary prevention) technique with forty parents with young children (2-4 years) with mild/moderate developmental delay. A randomized, treatment / control design is proposed. The Incredible Years Basic Parent Training Early Childhood series (IYBPT; Webster-Stratton, 1984, 1994) will be used as the intervention. This intensive 12- week intervention utilizes group discussion (8-12 parents per group) and videotape vignettes to target four curricular areas: child play, praise, rewards, and effective limit setting. The IYBPT series has been demonstrated to be efficacious in decreasing behavior problems in typically developing children. Furthermore, the Principal Investigator has successfully pilot tested this intervention approach with parents who have young children with developmental delay. Preliminary evidence from pilot data (N=13) suggest initial feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy in terms of reducing negative parent-child interactions and decreasing parent-reported stress. This proposed study will build on the initial pilot work and use a pre-, post treatment/ control design to: (1) utilize the IYBPT - Early Childhood series with caregivers who have young children (2-4 years) with developmental delay, (2) test the efficacy of the IYBPT in reducing child behavior problems and decreasing inappropriate/negative parent-child interactions, (3) explore the potential for parent training to reduce parent stress, daily hassles, and caregiver depression, often implicated in the development of psychopathology in children, and (4) decrease the risk of future behavior problems in this group by focusing on increasing parenting competence.
