Examining Parent and Family Factors in Children's Mental Health (K01)

Principal Investigator

Funding

  • NIMH
    • 7/1/2004-6/30/2009; $807,498

Project Description

The goal of this mentored career development award (K01) is to improve community-based mental health services for children by utilizing evidence-based treatments (EBTs) to address the needs of the entire family. The immediate goal is to understand how parent and family factors impact child treatments for disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) and how clinicians make treatment decisions with diverse families.

Disruptive behavior disorders are the most prevalent diagnoses in community settings. Parent and family contextual variables (P/FCVs) such as parental depression, substance use and family composition have been found to negatively affect treatment engagement, treatment compliance, and outcomes for DBDs.

Research plan for this award

Includes an examination of P/FCVs within community clinics for children with DBDs by:

  1. Understanding usual care practices in assessing for P/FCVs
  2. Examining the impacts of P/FCVs to service delivery, and
  3. Investigating treatment providers’ decision-making practices used to address the needs of the family in outpatient care.

The dual examination of consumer needs and usual care practices of real-world clinicians will provide insight regarding the fit between EBTs and community service delivery.