Symposium 31 - Modern Parenting: Reconceptualizing Parent-Focused Treatment

Chair(s)

• 

  Jennifer Piscitello, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  Assistant Research Scientist
  New York University
  Bayside, NY, United States

Discussant(s)

• TC

  Tim Cavell, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

  Professor
  University of Arkansas
  FAYETTEVILLE, AR, United States

Presenter(s)

• KD

  Kelly Daly, Ph.D.

  Assistant Research Scientist, Clinical Child Psychologist
  New York University
  New York, NY, United States
• 

  Samantha Corralejo, Ph.D.

  Assistant Professor
  California State University, Fullerton
  CULVER CITY, CA, United States
• BM

  Brittany Merrill, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  Postdoctoral Associate
  Florida International University
  Buffalo, NY, United States
• 

  Jennifer Piscitello, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  Assistant Research Scientist
  New York University
  Bayside, NY, United States

Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) is the most common psychosocial intervention for child externalizing problems. BPT is associated not only with decreases in child behavior problems, but with reductions in parenting stress and enhanced parent-child relationship quality. Despite substantial evidence supporting the effectiveness of BPT, uptake is disappointing. Forty percent of children diagnosed with a disruptive behavior disorder do not receive an evidence-based intervention (Kalvin et al., 2024). Moreover, only 22% of families who initiate BPT treatment are estimated to complete it (Chacko et al., 2018). Logistical barriers (e.g., transportation, cost, geographical restriction, scheduling conflicts, care needs), barriers to adherence (e.g., motivation, parent executive functioning, and cognitions, treatment demands), and barriers to learning (e.g., generalizing skills without support, no in-vivo feedback, parenting self-efficacy) are some of the reasons for this high underutilization rate (e.g., almost 60% of families of children with ADHD do not receive BPT).

Beyond these factors, many families remain unaware that BPT is a treatment option. This is particularly true for disorders such as ADHD—most frequently diagnosed by a pediatrician. A medical diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disorder is likely to engender medication-seeking as a first-line treatment. As a field, we are doing a poor job at disseminating the research support for BPT to medical and other referring professionals (e.g., teachers), as well as to the general public. Thus, referrals are not making it to BTP clinics, and families in certain geographical areas may simply lack access to BPT.

In sum, although evidence-based BPT programs have decades of research support with well-documented benefits for children and their families, families continue suffering at high rates. For example, in 2024, the Surgeon General released a public health warning about the negative impacts of parenting on the well-being of caregivers. As clinical practitioners, we are aware of frequent incongruity between what parents are looking for regarding immediate support from us and what we, as the experts, determine is most useful to them. There is a clear need to empirically determine whether our treatments are aligned with today’s parents and to adapt current treatments to ensure they are personalized for the specific needs of the families we serve. There is still much work to be done to address questions such as (1) whether our treatments are aligned with parents’ needs/wants, (2) what child development and parenting information parents are receiving and from whom, (3) how we can best adapt interventions to meet parents where they are, and (4) how we can utilize advances in technology to improve our assessments of parent-child interactions to inform treatment personalization. The presentations represented in this symposium address these questions and discuss implications of leveraging technological advances and social media to better understand why treatment underutilization is so pervasive, as well as discuss ways to improve initial uptake, increase motivation and engagement, and support lasting improvements in child and parent mental health functioning.

Presentations:

• 10:06 AM - 10:27 AM CST

  (SYM 31) Reconceptualizing Good Parenting in the Age of Social Media: Settled Science or a Discipline out of Touch?
  

  Speaker: Kelly Daly, Ph.D. – New York University

  Co-author: Jennifer Piscitello, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – New York University

  Co-author: Tymaa Alqatari, M.Sc. – New York University

  Co-author: Annette Kim, B.A. – New York University

  Co-author: Anna Segura Montagut, Ph.D. – New York University
• 10:27 AM - 10:48 AM CST

  (SYM 31) Decoding Influence: Understanding Parenting Content Creators and Their Secrets to Success
  

  Speaker: Samantha M. Corralejo, Ph.D. – California State University, Fullerton

  Co-author: Tamara Del Vecchio, Ph.D. – St John's University

  Co-author: Anil Chacko, Ph.D. – New York University

  Co-author: Jennifer Piscitello, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – New York University
• 10:48 AM - 11:09 AM CST

  (SYM 31) Meeting Parents Where They Are: Initial Acceptability of a Parent Training Smartphone Application with Dynamic, Personalized Support
  

  Speaker: Brittany M. Merrill, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – Florida International University

  Co-author: Gregory A. Fabiano, Ph.D. – Florida International University
• 11:09 AM - 11:30 AM CST

  (SYM 31) Leveraging Technology to Improve the Ecologically Valid Assessment of Parent-child Interactions
  

  Speaker: Jennifer Piscitello, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – New York University

  Co-author: Brittany M. Merrill, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – Florida International University

  Co-author: Megan Hare, Ph.D. – Vanderbilt University

  Co-author: Gregory A. Fabiano, Ph.D. – Florida International University

  Co-author: Ou Bai, Ph.D. – Florida International University

  Co-author: Yanzhao Wu, Ph.D. – Florida International University