The Parent Project’s Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior

Parents of what are collectively referred to as "strong-willed," or out-of-control adolescents and older children (11-17 years old), including children diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Conduct Disorder, and most children diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. The program has also been used with adult children still living in the home.

For parents/caregivers of children ages: 11 - 17

The Parent Project's Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior is a behaviorally based psychoeducational program for parents of acting out adolescents and older children which is presented only by trained Certified Parent Project Facilitators. Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior requires parents to attend a minimum of twenty hours of activity-based, highly structured classroom instruction, and six hours of support group involvement. Groups operate under the UCLA Self-Help Support Group Model, and may continue to meet indefinitely. Thus, Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior is not only a parent-training module, but also contains a subsequent ongoing support group component. The program follows the 216-page curriculum, A Parents' Guide to Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior. This program can serve as a stand-alone intervention for less severe issues, or concurrent with more traditional service delivery systems such as individual/family counseling, psychiatric treatment, inpatient, or residential care.

Ralph Fry
Parent Project, Inc.

• http://www.parentproject.com
• Email: ralphfry@parentproject.com
• Phone: (800) 372-8886

The goals of The Parent Project's Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior are:

• Reduce family conflict including arguing and violence
• Improve school attendance and performance
• Reduce/prevent alcohol and other drug use
• Reduce teen sexual acting out
• Terminate poor peer associations (up to and including frank gang involvement)
• Achieve appropriate parental response to teen runaway behavior
• Achieve appropriate parental response to teen suicidal threats/attempts
• Increase sense of parental efficacy (locus of control)
• Improve family structure to be consistent with age-appropriate, developmental needs of children/adolescents, including age and developmentally appropriate rewards/consequences
• Increase family bonding

The essential elements of The Parent Project's Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior include:

• Teaching parents to move towards an authoritative parenting style with the goal of achieving a child-specific level of parent intervention and supervision
• Each family in attendance using and completing parent workbook, A Parents' Guide to Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior by each family in attendance
• Using activity-based learning components (e.g., visuals, videos, PowerPoint, Overhead/Elmo) with the parents
• Using and completing learning activities in cooperative learning format with the parents
• Instruction by a Certified Parent Project Facilitator (one who has completed the forty-hour training and received certification)
• Parents attending a minimum 21 hours of classroom instruction with a class size of 12 to 20 parents and 6 hours of a support group after classroom instruction is finished
  
• Parents attending a support group that adheres to the UCLA Self-Help Support Group Model

Parent/Caregiver Services

The Parent Project’s Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:

• Children with the following issues: Arguing, violence, dropping out of school, truancy, gang involvement and other poor peer relations, destruction of property, defiance, alcohol and other drug abuse, sexual acting out, runaway threats and behavior, and suicidal threats and attempts. Parental inconsistency and passivityInappropriate consequences, both rewards and consequences (e.g., too long- term, inadequate, overly harsh, etc.)Overly permissive, autocratic, and neglectful parentingParental deficits of expression of love & affectionDeficits in family structure and cohesiveness (e.g., sense of family, family bonding)

Recommended Intensity

Three-hour weekly classes for units 1-6, two-hour support group sessions for units 7-16

Recommended Duration

Minimum 10 weeks (16 weeks recommended) with parents having opportunity to continue to attend self-help support groups indefinitely. Self-help support groups are leaderless with Facilitator support contact if needed, and are free of charge.

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Community Daily Living Setting
• Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
• Outpatient Clinic
• School Setting (Including: Day Care, Day Treatment Programs, etc.)

Homework

Weekly homework assignments are required with follow-up each succeeding week.

Languages

The Parent Project’s Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior has materials available in the following languages other than English:

• Hmong
• Spanish

For information on which materials are available in this language, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed in this page).

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

• A classroom of sufficient size for the number of attendees
• Overhead projector or Elmo
• Computer with LCD projector (preferable but not necessary)
• Projection screen (or blank wall)
• Tables suitable to seat 4 – 6 persons
• Comfortable chairs
• Minimum of one Certified Parent Project Facilitator
• Additional helpers as needed
• One Parent Project workbook for each family in attendance.

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

There is no minimum education requirement to train to be a facilitator. Presenters of Parent Project program must have completed the 40-hour Parent Project Facilitator Training and received certification to present The Parent Project and to purchase parent workbooks.

Manual Information

There is not a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact

Training Type/Location:

Parent Project Facilitator training weeks are provided three to four times per year at our home training facility in Southern California, and regionally and on-site for larger agencies, by contract.

Number of days/hours:

Five days, forty hours, 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM, with one hour lunch (provided, on-site).

"What is included in the Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research section?"

• Note: The following studies were not included in rating The Parent Project’s Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior on the Scientific Rating Scale.

  Stolz, H. E., Vargas, L., Hunter, S. B., Clifford, L. M., Gaedt, H. A., & Garcia., C. (2010). Evaluating Parent Project: A multi-site inquiry. Family Science Review, 15(1), 1–12.

  Type of Study: One group pre-test post-test study

  Number of participants: Parents: 127, Adolescents: 71

  Population:

  • Age — Parents: Mean=42.1 years, Adolescents: Mean=14.1 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — Parents: 57% European-American/White, 20% Latino, and 10% African-American; Adolescents: Not Specified
  • Gender — Parents: 76% Female, Adolescents: 44% Female
  • Status —

    Participants were parents of at-risk or out-of-control adolescents.
    

  Location/Institution: 13 program workshop sites in California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Idaho, Ohio and Alabama

  Summary:

  The purpose of the study was to evaluate Parent Project [now called The Parent Project’s Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior], a parent education program for parents of at-risk adolescents. Participants received the Parent Project intervention. Measures utilized include the Child Report of Parent Behavior Inventory and the Child Behavior Checklist – Youth Self-Report. Results indicate that compared to preworkshop data, week 8 data suggested significant increases in parent-reported parental support, parental behavioral control, and youth achievement, and significant decreases in youth antisocial behavior. Youth reported significant increases in maternal and paternal support and maternal behavioral control, and significant decreases in antisocial behaviors. Limitations include lack of randomization of participants, lack of control group, and lack of follow-up. Note: This article was not used in the rating process due to the lack of a control group.

  Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

• Note: The following studies were not included in rating The Parent Project’s Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior on the Scientific Rating Scale.

  Doumas, D. M., King, M., Stallworth, C., Peterson, P., & Lundquist, A. (2015). Evaluation of a parent-based intervention for at-risk adolescents. Journal of Addictions and Offender Counseling, 36(2), 66–80. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaoc.12004

  Type of Study: Pretest/Posttest

  Number of participants: 84

  Population:

  • Age — 30-62 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — 89.7% Caucasian, 7.7% Hispanic, 1.3% American Indian, and 1.3% African American
  • Gender — 62.3% Female and 37.7% Male
  • Status —

    Participants were parents of at-risk or out of control adolescents.

  Location/Institution: Northwestern region of the United States

  Summary:

  The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Parent Project [now called The Parent Project’s Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior], among parents of at-risk youth in the areas of general child management, family involvement, negative parent–child affective quality, substance use rules communication, and parental self-efficacy (PSE) in the ability to affect adolescent substance use. Participants received the Parent Project intervention. Measures utilized include the General Child Management Scale, Family Involvement Scale, Negative Parent–Child Affective Quality Scale, and the Substance Use Rules Communication Scale. Results indicate that there were improvements in child management, family involvement, parent-child affective quality, substance use rules communication, and PSE at a 10-week follow-up. Limitations include lack of randomization of participants, lack of generalizability due to ethnicity, and lack of controlled postintervention follow-up. Note: This article was not used in the rating process due to the lack of a control group.

  Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 10 weeks.

• Chibnall, S. H., & Abbruzzese, K. (2004). A community approach to reducing risk factors. The Journal of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 10(1), 30-31. Retrieved from http://www.parentproject.com/docs/research/OJJDP%20Journal_SeePages_30-32.pdf