Benjamin Gottesman, Psy.D.
Train Up a Child In the Way He Should Go:” An Examination of Parental Attitudes Toward Attending Behavioral Parent-Training Interventions in Houses of Worship
Chair: Camilo Ortiz, Ph.D.
Abstract
Although many religious institutions provide social services and psychological care, their potential as delivery sites of evidence-based mental health services remains largely untapped. Among the interventions most well suited to being delivered in community-based religious institutions is behavioral parent training (BPT). The present study randomized 102 parents of school-aged children to either read a vignette describing house-of-worship-based BPT or one describing traditional psychotherapy office-based BPT. Parents were also randomized to either a clergy-endorsement of BPT vignette or to a clergy-neutral vignette. As expected, there were not statistically significant differences on either parent-rated likelihood of BPT attendance or on expectations of BPT efficacy between the two BPT sites. Parents in the clergy-endorsed BPT condition had significantly higher expectations of BPT efficacy than those in the clergy-neutral condition. These findings indicate that the house of worship may be an acceptable yet underutilized venue for evidence-based parenting interventions.