Coaching Patterns of Therapists in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

Abstract

Background: Parent-Child Interaction Therapy-Emotion Development (PCIT-ED), an adaptation of PCIT, is efficacious in reducing young children's depressive symptoms. PCIT and PCIT-ED target children's symptoms by coaching parents to change their parenting. Therapists' coaching techniques include directive coaching strategies, which coach skills in a future-oriented way (e.g., telling a parent what to say), and responsive coaching strategies, which reinforce parenting skills (e.g., praising or describing a parent's past behavior). Previous research has shown that responsive (but not directive) coaching is associated with lower likelihood of PCIT dropout and greater acquisition of parent skills. This study examined coaching patterns in PCIT-ED and compared them with those in PCIT.

Method: The sample included 119 families who participated in a randomized controlled trial of PCIT-ED (Luby et al., 2018). Children were primarily White (77%) and male (65%), and were 5.2 years old (SD = 1.1) on average. Coaching techniques were coded from videos of the third treatment session using the Therapist-Parent Interaction Coding System. One-sample t-tests compared PCIT-ED coaching with published PCIT norms (Barnett et al., 2014; 2017). Results: PCIT-ED therapists used more responsive coaching and less directive coaching than published norms for PCIT therapists, t(121) = 22.09 and -10.68, p's < .001. Frequency of specific coaching strategies, such as describing and modeling skills, also differed from PCIT samples.

Conclusions: These findings reflect the importance of examining therapist coaching and links to therapy outcomes when PCIT is adapted, as results could refine therapist training in order to better help children.

Leah Williams | Psychological Sciences | Faculty Sponsor E.B. Caron