Group parent training with immigrant chinese families: enhancing engagement and augmenting skills training

Abstract

Parent training (PT) is an evidence-based treatment for reducing and preventing child conduct problems and abusive parenting. However, questions have been raised about the dissemination of PT to culturally diverse families who hold different views on childrearing. Group PT was applied in two Chinese immigrant families illustrating strategies for addressing potential cultural barriers. The Incredible Years program builds in therapeutic process elements to address cultural concerns to enhance engagement. In addition, augmenting basic PT with additional skills training can help parents manage stressors common in immigrant families to facilitate uptake of new parenting skills. This implementation experience suggested that high-risk immigrant Chinese parents can be effectively engaged in group PT, even when they are not in treatment voluntarily.