Filial therapy: Effects on two children's behavior and mothers' stress

Due to parents' continual and natural contact with their children, as well as shortages of professionals, parents are increasingly being asked to play a significant role in treatment for the children's emotional and behavior problems. Filial therapy is a treatment that involves parents by teaching p arents to conduct child-centered. play therapy sessions with their children . The current study sought to examine filial therapy effectiveness by measu ring changes in children's behavior and parental stress in parenting. Mothe rs of two preschool children were administered the Behavior Assessment fur Children and the Parenting Stress Index prior to, following completion of, and 2 mo. after participating in a 10-wk. filial therapy training program. Results suggest significant decreases in externalizing behaviors and decrea sed parenting stress for one parent of the two children. Informal parental reports of changes suggest that parents saw improved relationships with the ir children, their own confidence increased, generalization of skills, and improvements with regard to behavior problems.