Research on assessment and training of substance-related coping skills in parents of adolescent substance-abusers has been limited. Studies examining the impact of family interventions have generally failed to assess systematically parental coping following treatment, and program components have lacked a strong empirical base. Additionally, most studies have relied on general measures of family functioning which fail to measure substance-related coping skills and are of limited clinical utility. The present measurement and therapy development project is designed to address methodological limitations in this area and to extend work of the Principal Investigator on the Parent Situation Inventory (PSI), a situationally-specific inventory of substance-related coping skills. The project will be completed in three phases. In Phase I, the existing PSI situations will be reduced, and categorized into content area. They then will be collapsed into two parallel forms, and a scoring system incorporating both behavioral and cognitive components developed. In Phase II, the psychometric properties of the PSI will be evaluated on parent samples who have an adolescent substance abuser, either in treatment or not in treatment. Specifically, these psychometric properties include: (a) a generalizability analysis of the PSI with estimation of variance components for persons, items, forms, and raters; (b) an analysis of test-retest reliability; (c) an analysis of alternate form reliability; and (d) an evaluation of the concurrent validity of the PSI with respect to actual parental coping skills, parental functioning, and adolescent functioning. In Phase III, a coping skills training program for parents will be developed and pilot-tested. The content of this program will be based on material and criteria for effective responding developed during the first phase. In this pilot, parents will be randomly assigned to either a coping skills training program or a waiting list control condition. The effects of the training program will be assessed with respect to changes in parent coping skills (using alternate PSI forms), parental functioning, and adolescent functioning. This treatment development program will provide the foundation for further systematic studies of skill training for parents of adolescent substance abusers.
| McGillicuddy, Neil B; Rychtarik, Robert G; Papandonatos, George D (2015) Skill training versus 12-step facilitation for parents of substance-abusing teens. J Subst Abuse Treat 50:11-7 |
| McGillicuddy, Neil B; Rychtarik, Robert G; Morsheimer, Elizabeth T (2004) Psychometric evaluation of the parent situation inventory: a role-play measure of coping in parents of substance-using adolescents. Psychol Assess 16:386-90 |
| McGillicuddy, N B; Rychtarik, R G; Duquette, J A et al. (2001) Development of a skill training program for parents of substance-abusing adolescents. J Subst Abuse Treat 20:59-68 |
