A randomised controlled trial comparing a brief and standard parenting intervention for toddler externalising and aggressive behaviours

INTERVENTION: The Standard duration parenting intervention is the 8 session Group Triple P Program. This behavioural family intervention involves 2‐hour group sessions held once a week for four weeks, followed by 20‐minute individual telephone sessions, also once a week for four weeks. The four group sessions focus on the following topics: positive parenting, helping children develop, managing misbehaviour and planning ahead for high risk situations. These four sessions cover 17 core positive parenting strategies. The group program involves active skills training to teach parents these key parenting strategies, including videotaped modelling of skills, roleplay, rehearsal and feedback. The group sessions are followed by telephone discussions to assist parents to implement the skills learnt in the program. This intervention will be facilitated by a registered psychologist who is also an accredited Triple P Practitioner. The brief duration parenting intervention is the Triple P Parent Discussion Group focussing specifically on how to manage fighting and aggression. This intervention involves a single two‐hour group session followed by 20‐minute telephone sessions, held once a week for two weeks. The group session covers 8 positive parenting strategies and involves videotaped modelling of key parenting skills and some roleplay, but does not include the extensive roleplay, rehearsal and feedback of the standard duration intervention. This intervention will be facilitated by the same registered psychologist and Triple P Practitioner as for the standard intervention. CONDITION: Toddler aggressive behaviour Toddler externalising behaviour PRIMARY OUTCOME: Child aggressive behavior problems as measured by the parent‐rated Physical Aggression Scale for Early Childhood (PA‐SEC) SECONDARY OUTCOME: Dysfunctional parenting as measured by the three subscales of the Parenting Scale parent‐report measure: Laxness, Overreactivity and Verbosity Observed child disruptive behavior as measured by the percentage of intervals with disruptive child behavior from a 20 minute clinic videotaped parent‐child observation, coded in 10 second intervals by trained coders who were blind to condition . Observed parent aversive behavior as measured by the percentage of intervals with aversive parent behavior from a 20 minute clinic videotaped parent‐child observation, coded in 10 second intervals by trained coders who were blind to condition. Parent relationship satisfaction as measured by the parent‐rated Quality of Marriage Index Parental negative affect as measured by the DASS‐21 parent‐report questionnaire Parenting self‐efficacy as measured by the Parenting Tasks Checklist parent‐report measure: Behavioural self‐efficacy scale INCLUSION CRITERIA: Parents or carers of a child aged two or three years who are concerned about their child's aggression, and the child scores one standard deviation above the mean on the Physical Aggression Scale for Early Childhood. Parents need to be living in Sydney and able to attend group sessions at the University of Sydney.