This study is a research supplement to Dr. Ann Garland’s NIMH-funded study investigating the consistencies between empirically supported treatments for children with behavioral disorders and “real life” community mental health treatment.
This study seeks to integrate the research on parent education and parent training from both the disability and mental health literature. Studying how parents are empowered through parent education programs is one method for integrating these areas of research.
Although there is considerable research demonstrating the efficacy of parent education programs for children with a variety of diagnoses, there is little research on how to most effectively empower parents through parent education programs. This study aims to investigate the parent education process in community mental health treatments for children with a broad range of behavioral disorders.
The study will extract and analyze specific measures contained within existing data of the PRAC study and collect additional measures related to parent empowerment and engagement in the treatment process. The goal of this research is to examine the common factors involved in empowering and engaging parents in community mental health treatments for children with a variety of disorders and presenting problems.