Parent Management Training
Encyclopedia
Parent Management Training (PMT) is a programme that trains parents to manage their children's behavioural problems at home and at school. PMT works to correct maladaptive parent-child interactions especially as they apply to discipline. PMT utilizes social learning techniques based upon behaviour analysis and operant conditioning
to alter both the parents' and the child’s behaviour to decrease the child’s oppositional or antisocial behavioural patterns. PMT has been used as an adjunct therapy in Autism Spectrum Disorder, Conduct Disorder
, Down syndrome
, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder
(ODD).
The Oregon Social Learning Group developed and conducted most of the early research on parent management training in the late 1960s.. Off shoots of the model were similarly developed by Conne Hamf and such models led to the development of a hybrid model known as Parent–child interaction therapy . PMT was first developed in the 1960s by Alan E. Kazdin
, PhD., director of the Yale Parenting Centre and Child Conduct Clinic at Yale University
. The model follows a Behaviour analysis of child development in which moment to moment reinforcement chooses conflict tactics in fights over time as well as what is commonly termed personality.
Treatment sessions include instruction in social learning principles and techniques. The therapist instruct the parents on how to define, observe, and record their children's behaviour such as fighting and having temper tantrums and then how to apply appropriate methods of positive reinforcement and punishment.
Positive reinforcement, the key element of PMT, is given to the child via various techniques such as giving the child increased attention and praise and awarding points for positive behaviour. Punishment for negative behaviour is meted out via methods such as giving time outs, verbal reprimands and loss of privileges such as watching television or playing video games.
Contingencies are indirectly affected as well by training parents to communicate better about contingencies and problem solve troubled situations
Currently, efforts are underway to make the programs more effective with cultural tailtoring and improving cost effectiveness
Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning is a form of psychological learning during which an individual modifies the occurrence and form of its own behavior due to the association of the behavior with a stimulus...
to alter both the parents' and the child’s behaviour to decrease the child’s oppositional or antisocial behavioural patterns. PMT has been used as an adjunct therapy in Autism Spectrum Disorder, Conduct Disorder
Conduct disorder
Conduct disorder is psychological disorder diagnosed in childhood that presents itself through a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age-appropriate norms are violated...
, Down syndrome
Down syndrome
Down syndrome, or Down's syndrome, trisomy 21, is a chromosomal condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. It is named after John Langdon Down, the British physician who described the syndrome in 1866. The condition was clinically described earlier in the 19th...
, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...
, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder
Oppositional defiant disorder
Oppositional defiant disorder is a diagnosis described by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as an ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior toward authority figures which goes beyond the bounds of normal childhood behavior...
(ODD).
The Oregon Social Learning Group developed and conducted most of the early research on parent management training in the late 1960s.. Off shoots of the model were similarly developed by Conne Hamf and such models led to the development of a hybrid model known as Parent–child interaction therapy . PMT was first developed in the 1960s by Alan E. Kazdin
Alan E. Kazdin
Alan Edward Kazdin is the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology, Child Psychiatry, and Institute of Social Policies at Yale University, and the director of the Yale Parenting Center and Child Conduct Clinic. He was the 2008 President of the American Psychological Association.-Biography:Dr...
, PhD., director of the Yale Parenting Centre and Child Conduct Clinic at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
. The model follows a Behaviour analysis of child development in which moment to moment reinforcement chooses conflict tactics in fights over time as well as what is commonly termed personality.
Treatment sessions include instruction in social learning principles and techniques. The therapist instruct the parents on how to define, observe, and record their children's behaviour such as fighting and having temper tantrums and then how to apply appropriate methods of positive reinforcement and punishment.
Positive reinforcement, the key element of PMT, is given to the child via various techniques such as giving the child increased attention and praise and awarding points for positive behaviour. Punishment for negative behaviour is meted out via methods such as giving time outs, verbal reprimands and loss of privileges such as watching television or playing video games.
Contingencies are indirectly affected as well by training parents to communicate better about contingencies and problem solve troubled situations
Research
Parent management training has been very successful in treating children with conduct problems. The programs have been found to generalize. and to be maintained for several years post the program being discontinued. Meta analytic studies of children with ADHD have found the effect size to be large (.87) for parent management training . Parent management training in the treatment of conduct disorder can be enhanced by simultaneously training the child in problem solving skills with the combined treatment even showing continued and greater improvement one year after the treatment occurred. This success occurs even if children and parents are trained in a group formatCurrently, efforts are underway to make the programs more effective with cultural tailtoring and improving cost effectiveness