Child-Parent Psychotherapy for Preschooler Witnesses of Domestic Violence Program

University of California San Francisco (UCSF)

Status and phase

Completed

Phase 3

Conditions

Domestic Violence Exposure

Treatments

Behavioral: Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP)

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

NIH

Identifiers

NCT00187772

R21MH059661 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

IRB #HR 793-12912-06

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will examine the efficacy of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) for the treatment of preschoolers exposed to marital violence.

Full description

This study examines the efficacy of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) for the treatment of preschoolers exposed to marital violence. Multi-ethnic preschool-mother dyads from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds were randomly assigned to CPP or to a case management plus community referral for individual treatment comparison group. It was hypothesized the children who received CPP treatment would show significantly greater improvement in general symptomatology and in traumatic stress symptoms than those in the comparison group.

There is growing recognition that, contrary to the long-standing assumption that young children are impervious to environmental stresses, preschoolers exposed to violence show increased rates of disturbances in self-regulation and in emotional, social and cognitive functioning (Osofsky, 2004; Pynoos et al., 1999; van der Kolk, 2003). The present study examines the efficacy of a relationship-based treatment approach involving the child and the mother. Dyads were randomly assigned to either the Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) treatment group or to a comparison group that consisted of monthly case management by an experienced Ph.D.-level clinician plus referrals for individual treatment in the community for mothers and child. We hypothesized that Child-Parent Psychotherapy would be more effective in alleviating children's traumatic stress symptoms and behavior problems because it focuses on improving the quality of the child-mother relationship and engages the mother as the child's ally in coping with the trauma. Treatment was offered for 50 weeks.

Sex

All

Ages

3 to 6 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

child 3-5 years old
child exposed to marital violence as confirmed by mother's report on the Conflict Tactics Scale 2 (Straus et al., 1996)
perpetrator was not living in the home.

Exclusion criteria