Pilot Study of an Online Parent-Training Course for Disruptive Behavior With Live Remote Coaching for Practitioners

OBJECTIVE: Many clinicians find it challenging to obtain training in evidence-based interventions, including behavioral parent training, which is considered the front-line treatment for children with disruptive behaviors (Chacko et al., 2017). Workshops, ongoing consultation, and feedback provided in person are effective, yet are rarely feasible for clinicians in the field (Fixsen, Blase, Duda, Naoom, & Van Dyke, 2010). The purpose of the present study was to conduct a preliminary assessment of an online tutorial combined with live remote coaching for training mental health professionals in behavioral parent training.

METHOD: Participants in this pretest-posttest open trial were 22 clinicians and graduate students (73% female) from around the United States.

RESULTS: The web platform operated successfully, and clinicians found the training to be highly satisfactory. Compared to pre-training, participants demonstrated large improvements in knowledge about disruptive behavior and behavioral parent training and performed significantly better on demonstrations of skill in administering behavioral parent-training components.

CONCLUSIONS: An online course combined with live remote coaching is a promising methodology for significantly increasing the number of clinicians trained in evidence-based interventions for disruptive behavior in children. Next steps for evaluation and expansion of this training model are discussed.