Parenting and Intervention Studies (in the UK)
SPACE Study
The SPACE study, based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience in London (UK), is a longitudinal follow-up, in adolescence, of two samples of children who participated in an early intervention for disruptive behavioral disorders. The early intervention, based on a randomized control trial design and based on the Incredible Years’ parenting program, was effective in reducing disruptive behavior in early childhood. We were interested in the degree to which these early benefits would persist, and for whom. The longitudinal follow-up also provided some novel opportunities to study the early behavioral and psychological factors associated with behavioral health and well-being in adolescence. Findings from this study include: a) novel findings on the early influences on parent-child attachment relationships in adolescence; b) early behavioral and family influences associated with antisocial behavior, including severe psychopathology, in adolescence; c) evidence, in a subset of participants, of a long-term benefit from an early parenting intervention; d) innovative analyses on the financial costs of relationship quality.
Our ongoing work on this project has been supported by the The Healthcare Foundation (UK) and the Wynne Center for Family Research.
The group of investigators includes Drs. Stephen Scott, Tom O’Connor, Sajid Humayun, and Jackie Briskman.
Representative Publications
Scott, S., & O'Connor, T.G. (2012). An experimental test of differential susceptibility to parenting among emotionally dysregulated children in a randomized controlled trial for oppositional behavior. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53, 1184-1193. PMID 22881827
Scott, S., Briskman, J., & O'Connor, T.G. (2014). Early prevention of antisocial personality: Long-term follow-up of two randomized controlled trials comparing indicated and selective approaches. American Journal of Psychiatry, 171, 649-657. PMID 24626738
O’Connor, T.G., Humayun, S., Briskman, J.A., & Scott, S. (2016). Sensitivity to parenting in adolescents with callous/unemotional traits: Observational and experimental findings. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 125, 502-513. PMID 27054345
O’Connor, T.G., Woolgar, M., Humayun, S., Briskman, J.A., & Scott, S. (2019). Early caregiving predicts attachment representations in adolescence: findings from two longitudinal studies. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60, 944-952. PMID 29904928
Bachmann, C.J., Beecham, J., O’Connor, T.G., Scott, A., Briskman, J., Scott, S. (2019). The cost of love: financial consequences of insecure attachment in antisocial youth. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60, 1343-1350. PMID 31495929
PALS Study
The PALS study, also based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience in London (UK), is a randomized control trial of an early intervention for disruptive behavioral disorders. The children and families participating in the study are quite diverse in terms of ethic/racial and economic backgrounds. Findings from this study include the demonstration of a generalized effect on parent-child caregiving behavior in a parenting intervention.
Our work on this project has been supported by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the Jacobs Foundation, and the Wynne Center for Family Research.
The group of investigators includes Drs. Stephen Scott and Tom O’Connor.
Representative Publications
Scott, S., O’Connor, T.G., Futh, A., Matias, C., Price, J., & Doolan, M. (2010). Impact of a parenting program in a high-risk, multi-ethnic community: The PALS trial. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51, 1331-1341. PMID 20868373.
O'Connor, T.G., Matias, C., Futh, A., Tantam, G., & Scott, S. (2013). Social learning theory parenting intervention promotes attachment-based caregiving in young children: Randomized clinical trial. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 42, 358-370. PMID 23020146.
Matias, C., O’Connor, T.G., Futh, A., & Scott, S. (2014). Observational attachment theory-based parenting measures predict children's attachment narratives independently from social learning theory-based measures. Attachment and Human Development, 16, 77-92. PMID 24283669.
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