Therapeutic changes in children, parents, and families resulting from treatment of children with conduct problems

Objective: To examine changes in child, parent, and family functioning over the course of child therapy among children who completed outpatient treatm ent. Method: Children (N=250, ages 2-14 years) referred for oppositional, a ggressive, and antisocial behavior received variations of cognitive-behavio ral treatments. Outcome was evaluated by changes in the children (multiple symptom domains), parents (symptoms, stress), and family (relationships, fa mily functioning, support, marital satisfaction). Results: Child, parent, a nd family functioning improved significantly over the course of therapy. Th e magnitude of these changes indicated large improvements for child outcome measures and smaller improvements for parent and family outcome measures. Improvements in children, parents, and family measures were significantly a nd moderately correlated. Finally, the pattern of predictors varied among c hild, parent, and family outcomes. Conclusions: The benefits of child thera py extended to parent and family functioning, even though these were not fo cused on directly. The broad changes have significant implications for eval uating the effectiveness of treatment and the benefits and costs of deliver ing services to children.