Friday, July 10, 2009

COPEing with bad behaviour in Sweden

COPE (Community Parent Education Program) is a parent-education programme that aims to tackle behaviour problems in children. It includes strategies for giving attention to positive behaviour, balancing time and attention among siblings, ignoring minor disruptions, planning ahead and reward systems. Parents are taught a technique known as PASTE: Picking one, soluble, problem; Analysing the advantages and disadvantages of alternative solutions; Selecting the most promising alternative; Trying it out and Evaluating the outcome. The programme differs from others on offer in being delivered in the community and in group sessions making it cheaper and easier to access for people reluctant to see a psychologist. Lisa B. Thorell of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden studied the effectiveness of the COPE programme in 219 children. The programme was found to be effective in reducing behaviour problems, hyperactivity and impulsivity, problem behaviours, parents' stress and lack of parental control but not effective at reducing inattention, improving social competence and reducing problems with the children's peers.

Thorell, Lisa B. - The Community Parent Education Programme (COPE): treatment effects in a clinical and a community-based sample Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry July 2009, 14(3), 373-387

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