Conduct disorder is probably one of the most costly of mental disorders to society because such a large proportion of antisocial children remain involved with mental health agencies or criminal justice systems throughout their lives (Kazdin, 1985). For this reason, the treatment of conduct-disordered children has received a great deal of attention from clinical researchers. Parent training has been identified as a well- established treatment for children with conduct disorder (Brestan & Eyberg, 1998); however, long term follow-up assessments are usually not conducted leaving unanswered the important question of whether or not treatment gains are maintained over time. The primary aim of this research project is to assess the emotional and behavioral functioning of children whose parents participated in Webster-Stratton's parenting program 7 to 10 years ago to see how they are doing in the long run. Fifty adolescents and their parents will be interviewed and asked to complete standardized questionnaires which assess various aspects of the youth's behavior (e.g. delinquency and substance use) and mental health (e.g. self-esteem and depression). The use of standardized measures will enable useful comparison to typical same-age peers to see if negative outcomes have been prevented for this at-risk group of individuals. In addition, detailed data on these families are available which may allow the determination of early factors in a child's environment which predict long term outcome. Predictors will include measures of the child's early behavior problems, parental psychological functioning, parenting behavior, and the family's socioeconomic status. This study will be the first long-term follow-up study of the Webster- Stratton parenting program, and will begin to fill the gap in our knowledge regarding the long term durability of parent training as an early intervention for young children with conduct problems. By establishing what the long term outcomes are along with the factors that affect outcome, we may identify a treatment useful as a preventative intervention, as well as a cost effective therapy for those children who are clinically referred.
