Effects of Early Family/Parent Training Programs on Antisocial Behavior & Delinquency
Authors: Piquero Alex R. , Farrington David P. , Welsh Brandon C. , Tremblay Richard , Jennings Wesley G. 
Published: June 2013

Based on evidence that early antisocial behavior is a key risk factor for continued delinquency and crime throughout the life course, early family/parent training, among its many functions, has been advanced as an important intervention/prevention effort. The prevention of behavior problems is one of the many objectives of early family/parent training, and it comprises the main focus of this review. There are several theories concerning why early family/parent training may cause a reduction in child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency (and have other ancillary benefits in non‐crime domains over the life course). For example, early family/parent training programs are based, in part, on the notion that quality of parent‐child relations will facilitate learning of control over impulsive, oppositional, and aggressive behavior, thus reducing disruptive behavior and its long‐term negative impact on social integration.

The main objective of this Campbell systematic review is to assess the available research evidence on the effects of early family/parent training on child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency. In addition to assessing the overall impact of early family/parent training, this review will also investigate, to the extent possible, in which settings and under what conditions it is most effective. There are 55 different studies in the review covering a total of almost 10,000 children under 5 years old. The studies come from throughout the world, including the US, the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand and China. The studies cover more than 30 years, the oldest being published in 1976, and the most recent in 2008. All the studies were randomized controlled experiments which compared a group who took part in a family/parent training program with a control group.

The studies included in this systematic review indicate that early family/parent training is an effective intervention for reducing child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency, and that the effect of early family/parent training appears rather robust across various weighting procedures, and across context, time period, outcome source, and based on both published and unpublished data. It is important going forward that more stringent, experimental evaluations of early family/parent training be carried out and its outcomes assessed over the long‐term (i.e., include more follow‐up periods, especially follow‐ups into late adolescence and into adulthood) in order to cast a wide net with respect to the outcomes under investigation to include non‐crime life domains as well, and to conduct comprehensive cost‐benefit analyses of these programs.

Based on evidence that early antisocial behavior is a key risk factor for continued delinquency and crime throughout the life course, early family/parent training, among its many functions, has been advanced as an important intervention/prevention effort. The prevention of behavior problems is one of the many objectives of early family/parent training, and it comprises the main focus of this review. There are several theories concerning why early family/parent training may cause a reduction in child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency (and have other ancillary benefits in non‐crime domains over the life course). For example, early family/parent training programs are based, in part, on the notion that quality of parent‐child relations will facilitate learning of control over impulsive, oppositional, and aggressive behavior, thus reducing disruptive behavior and its long‐term negative impact on social integration. Additionally, these programs attempt to change the social contingencies in the family context and/or provide advice/guidance to parents on raising their children or general parent education. Results of this review indicate that early family/parent training is an effective intervention for reducing behavior problems among young children and the weighted effect size was 0.35 approximately corresponding to 50% recidivism in the control group compared with 33% recidivism in the experimental group. The results from a series of analog to the ANOVA and weighted least squares regression models (with random effects) demonstrated that there were significant differences in the effect sizes of studies conducted in the US versus those conducted in other countries and that studies that were based on samples smaller than 100 children had larger effect sizes. Sample size was also the strongest predictor of the variation in the effect sizes. Additional descriptive evidence indicated that early family/parent training was also effective in reducing delinquency and crime in later adolescence and adulthood. Overall, the findings lend support for the continued use of early family/parent training to prevent behavior problems such as antisocial behavior and delinquency. Future research should be designed to test the main theories of the effects of early family/parent training, more explicitly including a better articulation of the causal mechanisms by which early family/parent training reduces delinquency and crime, and future early family/parent training program evaluations should employ high quality evaluation designs with long‐term follow‐ups, including repeated measures of antisocial behavior, delinquency, and crime over the life course.

Background

Early family/parent training programs are intended to serve many purposes, one of them being the prevention of child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency. While early family/parent training may not often be implemented with the expressed aim of preventing antisocial behavior, delinquency, and crime – sometimes these programs are aimed at more general, non‐crime outcomes – its relevance to the prevention of crime has been suggested in developmentally‐based criminological and psychological literatures.

Objectives

The main objective of this review is to assess the available research evidence on the effects of early family/parent training on child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency. In addition to assessing the overall impact of early family/parent training, this review will also investigate, to the extent possible, in which settings and under what conditions it is most effective.

Search Strategy

Seven search strategies were employed to identify studies meeting the criteria for inclusion in this review: (1) A key word search was performed on an array of online abstract databases; (2) We reviewed the bibliographies of previous reviews of early family/parent training programs; (3) We performed forward searches for works that have cited seminal studies in this area; (4) We performed hand searches of leading journals in the field; (5) We searched the publications of several research and professional agencies; (6) After completing the above searches and reviewing previous reviews, we contacted scholars in various disciplines who are knowledgeable in the specific area of early family/parent training; and (7) We consulted with an information specialist at the outset of our review and at points along the way in order to ensure that we have used appropriate search strategies. Both published and unpublished reports were considered in the searches. Searches were international in scope.

Selection Criteria

Studies that investigated the effects of early family/parent training on child behavior problems such as conduct problems, antisocial behavior and delinquency were included. Studies were only included if they had a randomized controlled evaluation design that provided before‐and‐after measures of child behavior problems among experimental and control subjects.

Data Collection & Analysis

Narrative findings are reported for the 55 studies included in this review. A meta‐analysis of all 55 of these studies was carried out. The means and standard deviations were predominantly used to measure the effect size. Results are reported for the unbiased effect sizes and the weighted effect sizes and, where possible, comparisons across outcome sources (parent reports, teacher reports, and direct observer reports). In the case of studies that measure the impact of early family/parent training on antisocial behavior and delinquency at multiple points in time, similar time periods before and after are compared (as far as possible).

Main Results

The studies included in this systematic review indicate that early family/parent training is an effective intervention for reducing child behavior problems including antisocial behavior and delinquency, and that the effect of early family/parent training appears rather robust across various weighting procedures, and across context, time period, outcome source, and based on both published and unpublished data.

Reviewer's Conclusions

We conclude that early family/parent training should continue to be used to prevent child behavior problems such as conduct problems, antisocial behavior, and delinquency among young persons in the first five years of life. Such programs appear to have few negative effects and some clear benefits for its subjects. It is important going forward that more stringent, experimental evaluations of early family/parent training be carried out and its outcomes assessed over the long‐term (i.e., include more follow‐up periods, especially follow‐ups into late adolescence and into adulthood) in order to cast a wide net with respect to the outcomes under investigation to include non‐crime life domains as well, and to conduct comprehensive cost‐benefit analyses of these programs.