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Enhancing the Impact of Behavioural Family Intervention With Children: Emerging Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2014

Matthew R. Sanders*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, The University of Queensland
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Abstract

Behavioural family intervention (BFI) as a treatment approach emphasises the importance of family interaction patterns in the origins, maintenance, and treatment of child behaviour problems. The BFI Field can document substantial contributions to the development of more effective treatments with children, particularly those with conduct problems. Furthermore, this approach is now being applied to new areas with encouraging results (eg. pain, chronic health problems, anxiety disorders, and learning difficulties). There is increasing evidence that this technology is not a panacea and that good clinical outcomes can be difficult to achieve when children's problems are complicated by other indices of family adversity (eg. marital discord, maternal depression, alcohol abuse, or poverty). This special issue of Behaviour Change documents recent developments in BFI which attempt to improve outcomes with high risk groups. Applications of BFI with depressed and marital distressed parents and with children who are developmentally disabled, anxious, or have learning difficulties, are discussed. Finally, the issue points towards the use of BFI as a strategy for preventing disruptive behavioural disorders in children.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1992

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References

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