title: Randomized trial of distance-based treatment for young children with discipline problems seen in primary health care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Many parents of preschool-age children have concerns about how to discipline their child but few receive help. We examined the effects of a brief treatment along with usual care, compared with receiving usual care alone.  Patients. Parents (N = 178) with concerns about their 2- to 5-year olds' discipline were recruited when they visited their family physician at 1 of 24 practices.
  
  
  METHODS
  After completing mailed baseline measures, parents were randomly assigned to receive usual care or the Parenting Matters intervention along with usual care. Parenting Matters combined a self-help booklet with two calls from a telephone coach during a 6-week treatment period. Follow-up assessments were completed at 7 weeks post-randomization, and 3 and 6 months later.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Behaviour problems (Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory) decreased significantly more in the Parenting Matters condition compared with Usual Care alone, based on a significant time by treatment group effect in intent-to-treat, growth curve analyses (P = 0.033). The Parenting Matters group also demonstrated greater and more rapid improvement than in usual care alone in terms of overall psychopathology (Child Behaviour Checklist, P = 0.02), but there were no group differences in parenting. The overall magnitude of group differences was small (d = 0.15 or less).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A brief early intervention combining a self-help booklet and telephone coaching is an effective way to treat mild behaviour problems among young children. This minimal-contact approach addresses the need for interventions in primary health care settings and may be a useful component in step-care models of mental health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Western University, London, Canada. greid@uwo.ca
authors.forename: Graham J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: Moira
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: Evelyn
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vingilis
authors.forename: David J A
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Dozois
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wetmore
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dickie
authors.forename: W E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Osmun
authors.forename: Terrance J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Wade
authors.forename: Judith B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Gregory S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Zaric
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004493:Education; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057194:Intention to Treat Analysis; D008297:Male; D010174:Pamphlets; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D019114:Remote Consultation