Concurrent Parent and Child Group Outcomes for Child Externalizing Disorders: Generalizability to Typical Clinical Settings

Parent behavior management and child social skills training programs have demonstrated efficacy in clinical research settings and are highly efficient treatment modalities. Few studies have examined their effectiveness and efficiency within the typical clinical setting. The current paper examines the use of a concurrent parent behavior management and child social skills training program, evaluating the current sample, which consists of 22 children (ages 5-10) and their guardians, as well as two previous typical clinical samples. The Eyberg Checklist was utilized to assess pre and post treatment intensity scores for childhood externalizing symptoms, with an average treatment effectiveness of 0.89 standard deviations. This is consistent with previous findings (Tynan, et al., 1999; Tynan, et al., 2004) and further demonstrates the effectiveness of the concurrent parent and child training approach as utilized within the typical clinical setting.