Psychology-Interventions and Prevention in Delinquency and Family Violence - Essay Example

The intervention is typically used to treat severe behavior problems in children between the ages of 2 and 8, like disruptive or externalizing behavior problems, conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. PCIT involves live coaching of parent-child interaction by the therapist. This intervention consists of two major components: (1) parents are taught to enhance their relationship with their children by having supportive and positive communication with them and (2) parents are trained in behavioral strategies to effectively discipline their children and improve compliance.

In PCIT, parents practice these skills until they master it and the child’s behavior improves. PCIT has been found to be very effective in reducing behavior problems in young children and improving communication between them and their parents (Urquiza & McNeil, 1996). It is unique in that it treats parent and child together, and uses live coaching. Training in Stress Management and Anger Control Strategies This cognitive and behavioral training is targeted towards child-abusing parents who suffer from stress and their perception about not being able to cope with it.

Stress is usually addressed by identifying the stressor e.g., children getting restless due to hunger just before supper and finding practical solutions to address it e.g. giving a light snack and keeping them engaged in some activity that allows for supper preparation (Azar, 1989). Anger control strategies involve training in three areas: (1) identifying the anger causing factors which may be situational, psychological or cognitive, (2) replacing the thoughts that increase anger with those that decrease arousal and (3) control the expression of anger (Azar, 1989).

Cognitive Retraining as a Component of Child Maltreatment Program This is an intervention that is directed towards parent’s causal analysis of care giving challenges and corresponding problem-solving activity. It has been found that when caregivers have a biased perspective of the situation, they tend to be more physically abusive towards their children and exhibit harsh parenting practices (Bugental et al., 2002). Therefore, alterations in the cognitive appraisal process are implemented to enhance parent’s perception of power and competence within the relationship and thereby reduce child abuse and harsh parenting practices.

In a recent study, the cognitive appraisal process was implemented as part of the enhanced home visitation component within the Healthy Start model in families that were at moderate risk for maltreatment (Bugental et al., 2002). The results revealed that physical abuse was successfully curtailed in families that were at moderate risk for maltreatment and families that included children who were medically at-risk were most benefited from this intervention (Bugental et al., 2002). Multi-systemic Therapy (MST) The Multi-systemic Therapy (MST) is an intensive psychological treatment program that targets high risk juvenile offenders between the ages of 12 and 17 and their families.

These juveniles are usually very violent and/or substance abusing and are at high risk of out-of-home placement. The systemic approach of MST targets multiple systems like school, family, peer groups, teachers and neighborhood associated with the individual. MST is provided using a home-based model of service delivery and addresses various factors associated with delinquency. In