half day workshop

MODIFYING RISKY PARENTAL ATTRIBUTIONS: A BRIEF COGNITIVE APPROACH TO THE PREVENTION OF RELATIONSHIP RUPTURES AND CHILD MALTREATMENT.
Yvonne Bohr, York University, Canada and Richard Holigrocki, University of Indianapolis, USA

AC Hotel Room: Sants

Over 3 million children in North America are victims of suspected physical abuse each year, and many more endure emotional trauma. The breakdown of parent-child relationships, and ensuing risk for maltreatment come at an enormous cost for society today. Yet relatively few brief and focused early interventions are available to clinicians who wish to prevent maltreatment. Preventive intervention studies are rare as they pose great challenges to scientist-practitioners. Often clients at risk cannot be retained in treatment long enough to reap any benefits. However, lately, advances in infant mental health have begun to provide us with a greater understanding of the pathways to risk for maltreatment, and are paving the way to briefer, more targeted interventions. Recently, researchers have shown that early parental attitudes and behaviors which may lead to worrisome parent-child interactions can be successfully changed (Bugental, 2002; Bohr, 2005; Schechter, 2006). We present the Parent-Child Interaction Assessment-II Modifying Attributions of Parents (PCIA-II/MAP; Bohr, 2005; Bohr & Holigrocki, 2005) intervention. This treatment applies empirically established cognitive models in a brief, intervention based on video-feedback. Parents take part in a videotaped play-based interaction with their pre-schooler or school-age child. The taped interaction then becomes the basis of a 3 to 4-session assessment and intervention which focuses on the parent’s interpretations of, and attributions for her child’s behaviors. Over the course of the intervention, the clinician and parent collaborate to build upon the parent’s strengths as well as to recognize and modify the parent’s negative attributions for her child’s behaviors.

Dr. Yvonne Bohr is a licensed Clinical Child Psychologist with over 15 years experience in parent-child intervention, and extensive background in training hospital and clinic staff in cognitive behavioral methods.  She heads up the Infant Child Treatment Team at a local mental health center, one of the first infant mental health teams in Canada. Dr. Bohr is on faculty in the Clinical Developmental area of the Department of Psychology at York University in Toronto.   Dr. Richard Holigrocki is the Director of Clinical Training and Associate Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Indianapolis, USA. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and completed his postdoctoral training at the Menninger Clinic where he also served as a staff psychologist. Dr. Holigrocki’s research is in the area of psychotherapy outcome and the multimodal assessment of parent-child interaction.

Key References:
Bohr, Y. (2005). Infant Mental Health Programs: Experimenting with innovative models. Infant Mental Health Journal, 26(5), 407-422. Bohr, Y. & Holigrocki, R. J (2005).
PCIA-II MAP Treatment Manual: Modifying Attributions of Parents intervention. York University and the University of Indianapolis.
Bugental, D.B., Lin, E.K., Rainey, B., Kotkotovic, A., & O’Hara, N. (2002). A cognitive approach to child abuse prevention. Journal of Family Psychology, 16, 243–258.
Holigrocki, R. J., Hudson Crain, R., Bohr, Y, & Young, K. (2006). When direct observation assessment becomes treatment: Modifying the parental attributions of women victims of domestic violence. Manuscript under review.