Effectiveness of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) compared with Creative Family Therapy.

Most important predictor of adult antisocial behavior is the occurrence of problems during early childhood. Disruptive behavior of children over 8 years of age might become chronic and becomes difficult to change. An early intervention is important for these children. Thereby it is important to treat disruptive behavior in children and to support parents for preventing antisocial behavior.



Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a treatment aimed for children between the ages of 2 and 7 with disruptive behavior. PCIT is designed in the USA and is implemented in the Netherlands at The Bascule since 2007. The Creative Family is designed in the Netherlands by Frans Beelen and is targeting the same population.



Unlike in some foreign countries, in the Netherlands there is little knowledge about treatment effects of PCIT and Creative Family Therapy. The aim of this study is the assess the efficiency of PCIT compared to the Creative Family Therapy.

The main objectives of the present study are: determining short and long term effects of PCIT and Creative Family Therapy; assessing the efficiency of these therapies; and identifying the characteristics of those children and parents who do not respond to the given treatment.

The study contains three measurements:

1. Prior to treatment;

2. Directly after treatment;

3. Six months after treatment.

PCIT:

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is an individualized intervention developed for caregivers and their 2- to 7-year-old children with disruptive and externalizing behavior. PCIT teaches authoritative parenting, a combination of nurturance, good communication and firm control in two phases of treatment. In the first phase, called the child-directed interaction (CDI) phase, parent learn skills to strengthen the parent-child bond, increase child prosocial behavior and decrease negative child behavior. In the second phase, called the parent-directed interaction (PDI), parents learn additional skills to reduce child non-compliance and other negative behaviors that show resistance to extinction in the child phase.



Creative family therapy:

This treatment focuses on positive changes in the interaction patterns of family members. Siblings can be involved in treatment too. Parents and children are working together on a creative task. Parents form their own treatment goals. The therapist creates a task adjusted on this goals. In this treatment parents learn to lead their children in a successful way.