Blueprints
Promising Programs Fact Sheets
| Preventive Treatment
Program |
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Program
Overview
The program is designed to prevent antisocial behavior
of boys who display early, problem behavior. It provides
training for both parents and youth to decrease delinquency,
substance use, and gang involvement.
Program Targets
The intervention has been successfully implemented for
white, Canadian-born males, ages 7-9, from low socioeconomic
families, who were assessed as having high levels of
disruptive behavior in kindergarten.
Program Content
The Preventive Treatment Program combines parent training
with individual social skills training. Parents receive
an average of 17 sessions that focus on monitoring their
children’s behavior, giving positive reinforcement
for prosocial behavior, using punishment effectively,
and managing family crises. The boys receive 19 sessions
aimed at improving prosocial skills and self-control.
The training is implemented in small groups containing
both disruptive and non-disruptive boys, and it utilizes
coaching, peer modeling, self-instruction, reinforcement
contingency, and role playing to build skills.
Program Outcomes
Evaluations of the program have demonstrated both short-
and long-term gains for youth receiving the intervention.
At age 12, three years after the intervention:
- Treated boys were less likely to report the following
offenses: trespassing, taking objects worth less than
$10, taking objects worth more than $10, and stealing
bicycles.
- Treated boys were rated by teachers as fighting
less than untreated boys.
- 29% of the treated boys were rated as well-adjusted
in school, compared to 19% of the untreated boys.
- 22% of the treated boys, compared to 44% of the
untreated boys, displayed less serious difficulties
in school.
- 23.3% of the treated boys, compared to 43% of the
untreated boys, were held back in school or placed
in special education classes.
At age 15, those receiving the intervention were less
likely than untreated boys to report:
- Gang involvement;
- Having been drunk or taken drugs in the past 12
months;
- Committing delinquent acts (stealing, vandalism,
drug use); and
- Having friends arrested by the police.
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