Incredible Years Intervention Purpose Statement

Incredible Years Intervention
University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Work
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this paper is to explore the intervention Incredible Years (IY) and its effectiveness on youth that exhibit behavioral and emotional problems. The program was designed by Carolyn Webster-Stratton, PhD to address these concerns. It is aimed at both prevention and treatment. This paper will outline the significance and the prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems among school aged children and evaluate the effectiveness of the Incredible Years (IY) intervention. Recommendations will also be presented for utilizing IY as an intervention with families involved in the child welfare system. Significance
Families were recruited from what the researchers described as socially disadvantaged neighborhoods. The sample included 153 preschoolers between the ages of 36 and 59 months. These preschoolers were deemed to be at risk for conduct problems and were randomly assigned to experimental and wait-list groups. One hundred and four preschoolers were assigned to receive the intervention and 49 preschoolers were assigned to the control condition. The Incredible Years BASIC Parent Program was utilized as an intervention. Groups of up to 12 parents met for twelve weekly sessions that ran for 2 to 2.5 hours. These sessions followed the treatment manual protocols. Researchers created assessment tools based on the questionnaires that parents completed and home observations of parent child interactions. Assessments were conducted at intake and then again six months later. The Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory Problem scale was used to assess the number and intensity of conduct problems. The Dyadic Parent Child Interaction Coding System was used to code the behavior of the parent and child in the home.
Results of this particular study found that certain groups showed greater improvement in conduct problems post intervention. Groups that fared better are boys, younger children, and children who had mothers with more depressive symptoms and behaviors. This study found progressive changes in parenting skills
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