Parent alcohol and drug use history is predictive of unskilled parenting practices that lead to child antisocial behavior, alcohol and drug risk, and failure at school and with peers. Within a community corrections population, we propose to test parent management training efficacy and the predictive validity of motivational and cognitive factors in accounting for successful participation in parenting groups. The sample will be taken from a rural Oregon county population receiving court-ordered supervision and will consist of N = 180 men and women and their families who volunteer to participate. Participants will live with or have weekly contact with their child(ren) 15 years of age or younger, and will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: motivational parent management training (MPMT) or as usual community (AUC) intervention. Assessment at baseline, intervention termination, and 12-month follow-up will include multiple-agent, multiple-method data for key constructs: substance use, antisocial behavior, motivation levels and cognitive factors, parent discipline, supervision, encouragement, involvement and problem solving. We will assess children ages 5 years and older for internalizing and externalizing behaviors, academic performance, and peer-related problems, as well as substance use risk for children aged 10 and older. Parent, significant other, and official records reports of child adjustment, nurturance and abuse will be gathered for all children. We hypothesize that, (1) motivational levels and cognitive factors will be predictive of increased engagement for both the MPMT and AUC groups, (2) successful participation in MPMT groups will result in parents'reduced risk for substance use and recidivism, (3) gains in parenting skills will occur in the MPMT as compared with the AUC condition, (4) increments in parenting skills will produce better behavioral, peer, school, and alcohol and drug risk outcomes for children and adolescents, and (5) parents'adjustment at follow-up will also be impacted by their children's improvement. MANOVA and structural equation modeling will be used to test the key hypotheses.
