Marital Therapy With Parents to Alleviate Behavioral Disorders in Their Children

Abstract

This study examined the effects of couples psychotherapy with parents whose 5- to 12-year-old children misbehaved in school. An experimental group of 23 parents was compared to an alternative-treatment group of 11 parents, using pre- and posttests. The experimental group was treated with conjoint marital therapy derived from object relations and structural theories, lasted 12 weeks, and targeted marital and parental boundaries. The comparison group offered either or both parents individual conventional psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy. Children were not included in the therapy provided to either group. On the posttest it was found that parents assigned to both treatment conditions equivalently improved on the Marital Communication Inventory, but only the parents assigned to the experimental condition showed significant gains on the Parent Attitude Survey. Only those children of parents receiving experimental treatment improved significantly on the Child Resource Inventory, completed by each child's teacher. Social workers may use this brief conjoint marital therapy method to ameliorate child misbehavior by restructuring the child's home and parental environment.