Kauffman Best Practices Project Final Report - The Chadwick Center ...

PARENT CHILD INTERACTION THERAPY
PCIT is a
highly specified,
step-by-step,
live-coached
behavioral parent
training model.
Why use Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)?
In examining the current clinical and research literature on physically abusive
and ‘at-risk’ families, it is apparent there are many underlying factors that
contribute to physically abusive and violent behaviors. Central among these
factors is the coercive relationship between the parent and child. In examining
this relationship, abusive and ‘at-risk’ parents are characterized by high rates
of negative interaction, low rates of positive interaction, and ineffective parental
disciplining strategies, typically an over-reliance on punishment. Conversely,
physically abused and ‘at-risk’ children have been reported to be aggressive,
defiant, non-compliant, and resistant to parental direction. These ‘patterns of
interaction’ characterize a negative, coercive parent-child relationship that
often escalates to the point of severe corporal punishment and physical abuse.
Such coercive ‘patterns of interaction’ (i.e., using aggression to acquire child
compliance resulting in defiance and further behavioral disturbance in the
child) eventually becomes a relatively stable form of responding to parent-child
conflict, though it is often ineffective and carries significant negative side-effects
for the child. While it is likely that there are many different types of abusive and
‘at-risk’ parent-child relationships, this cycle appears to explain a common form
of parent-child physical violence.
PCIT is an intervention which traditionally has targeted families with
oppositional and defiant children (Eyberg, 1988; Hembree-Kigin & McNeil,
1995). For purposes related to child physical abuse related intervention,
however, Parent Child Interaction Therapy may serve either as a parentmediated
treatment for externalizing child behavior problems among children
ages 2-8, or as a treatment designed to change the behavior of physically
abusive parents with children ages 4-12, irrespective of child behavior
problems. There is evidence supporting the efficacy of PCIT for either of
these goals, or potentially for both simultaneously. PCIT accomplishes three
important outcomes:
• Improved parenting skills;
• Decreased child behavior problems; and
• Improvement in the quality of the parent-child relationship.
Definition of Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
PCIT is a highly specified, step-by-step, live-coached behavioral parent training
model. It provides immediate prompts to a parent while they are interacting
with their child conducted either by use of a ‘bug-in-the-ear’ system (an earmounted
receiver worn by the parent; while the therapist provides prompts
from an adjoining observation room via a transmitter, which uses a short-range
FM signal) or through ‘in-room’ coaching.
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