This document summarizes a student's experience assisting with the delivery of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) as part of Delaware's B.E.S.T. program. PCIT is an evidence-based practice that improves parent-child relationships and reduces behavioral problems in children aged 2-7 by changing parent-child interaction patterns through live coaching. The student helped set up therapy rooms, provided childcare, entered data, and plans to create and pilot a questionnaire to understand clinicians' perspectives on delivering PCIT in community settings.

1. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy
(PCIT) Clinician Assistant and
Dissemination Researcher for
Delaware's B.E.S.T.
Student: Anna Davis
Advisor: Ryan Beveridge
Department: Psychology

2. My initial questions….
1. What do mental health services for children
actually look like in a community setting?
- Clinical experience
2. Why is there a gap between empirical research
and practical application of mental health
services?
- Research

3. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy
• Evidence-based practice
• Developed by Sheila Eyberg in the 1970s
• Treats children with emotional or behavioral
problems
• Improving the quality of parent-child
relationships by changing parent-child
interaction patterns

4. Who is it for?
2- to 7-year-olds with…
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
• Conduct Disorder (CD)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
(ADHD)

5. Key Elements
• Works with parent and child together
• Early intervention - reversing patterns early and
improving future outcomes
• Not time limited – data driven
• Live coaching

6. Theoretical Bases
• Diana Baumrind’s (1967) research on parent
styles
• Virginia Axline’s (1947) research on play therapy
• Attachment theory
• Social learning theory

7. Two sections:
1. Child-Directed Interaction
-builds a harmonious parent-child
relationship
2. Parent-Directed Interaction
- consistent and predictable outcomes for
noncompliance

8. Child-Directed Interaction
Avoid:
P Praise
1. Questions
R Reflect
2. Commands
I Imitate 3. Criticism
D Describe
E Enjoy

9. Parent-Directed Interaction
• Teaches parents a consistent time-out sequence
for negative behaviors

10. PCIT Outcomes
• Improved parent-child interactions
• Decreased behavioral problems at home
• Better child behavior in school
• Improved parent behavior and functioning
• Possible generalization to siblings

11. As a Clinician Assistant I:
• Helped set up therapy rooms
• Live coded with the therapist
• Provided childcare for siblings
• Helped clean up
• Entered session data

12. Global perspective
• Science to service gap
Both sides of the coin

13. As a Research Assistant I created:
Clinician Perspective Questionnaire (CPQ)
• Feasibility/Financial Concerns
• Colleague Use
• Supervisor Follow-up
• Organizational Support
• Motivation
• Perceived Role of Therapist
• Fit
• Activity
• Attitudes towards Evidence-Based Practices
• Adequacy of Preparation/Training

15. Future Steps:
• Pilot questionnaire
• Refine questionnaire to a psychometrically valid
measure
• Distribute questionnaire to all clinicians trained
in PCIT by Delaware’s B.E.S.T.
• Analyze data and draw conclusions

16. Possible uses of data
• Inform/alter training
• Inform/alter outreach
• Inform/alter follow-up
• Increase mutual understanding between
clinicians and researchers
• Understand practical roadblocks to
implementation to resolve them
• Find predictors of a good therapist

17. Thank you for everyone who made this
experience great!
• My adviser: Ryan Beveridge
• My colleagues at Delaware’s BEST: Tim
Fowles, Gina Circo, and Josh Masse
• The therapists I assisted: Carly Yasinski, Stevie
Grassetti, Rachael Koch, and Beth Higley

18. Works Cited
Brestan, E.V., Eyberg, S. M., Boggs, S., & Algina, J. (1997).
Parent-Child Interaction Therapy: Parent perceptions of
untreated siblings. Child and Family Behavior
Therapy, 19, 13-28.
Connor Smith, J.K. & Weisz J.R. (2003). Applying treatment
outcome research in clinical practice: Techniques for adapting
interventions to the real world. Child and Adolescent Mental
Health 8, 3–10.
McNeil, C.B. & Hembree-Kigin, T.L. (2010). Parent-child
interaction therapy (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer Science
+ Business Media, LLC.
pcit.org
Thomas, R. & Zimmer-Gembeck, M.J. (2007). Behavioral
outcomes of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy and Triple P –
Positive Parenting Program: A review and meta-analysis.
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 475-495.