Comparison of multisystemic therapy and parent training in the brief treatment of child abuse and neglect.

Abstract

This study evaluated the relative efficacy of two promising treatments of child abuse and child ne-glect: parent training and multisystemic therapy. Subjects included 18 abusive families and 15 ne-glectful families who were randomly assigned to the treatment conditions. Self-report and observa-tional measures were used to evaluate the effects of treatment at three levels that have been associatedwith child maltreatment: individual functioning, family relations, and stress/social support. Statisti-cal analyses revealed that families who received either treatment showed decreased parental psychiat-ric symptomology, reduced overall stress, and a reduction in the severity of identified problems.Analyses of sequential observational measures revealed that multisystemic therapy was more effec-tive than parent training at restructuring parent-child relations. Parent training was more effectivethan multisystemic therapy at reducing identified social problems. The differentia] inOuences of thetwo treatments were probably associated with differences in their respective treatment contexts andepistemologies.