Center for Prevention & Early Intervention

The Incredible Years: Parent, Child, & Teacher Components

The Incredible Years: Parent, Child, & Teacher Components.  The Incredible Years (Webster-Stratton, 1992) is a multi-component intervention program for children with conduct problems.  The components include (1) a social learning-based parenting program (basic and advanced) for 4-10 year olds,  (2) a child component designed for 4-8 year olds and based on cognitive behavioral principles and theories of emotional intelligence and development, and (3) a teacher component based on social learning as well as cognitive behavioral principles.  The overall purpose of each of the components is to reduce conduct problems and to promote social, emotional, and academic competence in children. 

The Parent Component consists of a basic and an advanced program and is designed to target aggressive/disruptive behavior in 4-10 year olds. The basic program contains 12-weekly, small group sessions, during which parents observe videotapes of modeled parenting skills. Each unit builds on the previous unit in a stepwise fashion. Group members identify their own mistakes by watching the videotape examples of "doing it right" and "doing it wrong" or "neither right nor wrong." After each vignette, the leader pauses the videotape and asks open-ended questions about the scenes.  Parents react to and discuss the episodes, and problem-solve alternative approaches.  Many situations are role-played and rehearsed by group members.  Families also are asked to discuss and problem solve other problem situations that occur at home.  The leader uses group skills such as reflection, summarization of important points, reframing, confrontation, reinforcement, support and acceptance, humor and optimism, encouragement of all group members participation, teaching of important concepts, and directing the group’s focus to key concepts.  Each session has a daily homework assignment and handouts, which review the main points for the session. The advanced program focuses on parent interpersonal issues, such as effective communication and problem solving skills, anger management, and ways to give and get support. 

The Child Component, or the Dinosaur School curriculum (Webster-Stratton, 1992), is designed for 4-8 year olds and focuses on strengthening children's social and emotional competencies, such as understanding and communicating feelings, using effective problem solving strategies, managing anger, practicing friendship and conversational skills, and using appropriate classroom behaviors. The treatment program is delivered in 2-hour weekly small group sessions (6 children per group) lasting 20 to 22 weeks. A performance-based intervention approach is employed, rather than a cognitive or predominantly verbal approach. Consistent with the parent component and a performance-based approach, videotape modeling is used.  The children are shown 100 vignettes depicting children in a variety of situations and settings (e.g., at home with parents, in the classroom, and on the playground). In addition to using videotape-modeling methods, the program involves fantasy play with life-size puppets (including a number of dinosaurs), which present their ongoing interpersonal problems. This element was included because imaginary play is highly important to 4- to 7-year-olds (e.g., Gottman, 1986).  The content of the programs (and the accompanying discussions) specifically address interpersonal difficulties typically encountered by young children (ages 4 to 8) who have conduct problems. These include lack of social and conflict resolution skills, loneliness and negative attributions, inability to empathize or to understand another perspective, and problems at school. Videotape scenes depict children coping with stressful situations in a variety of ways: controlling their anger with the "turtle technique"; problem solving at home and school; making friends; coping with rejection and teasing; paying attention to teachers; finding alternatives to bothering a child sitting next to them in the classroom; and cooperating with family members, teachers, and classmates.

Evidence of Efficacy. Four to eight year old children diagnosed with conduct problems whose parents received The Incredible Years Parenting Programs showed reductions on both reported and observational measures of aggressive and destructive behavior compared to a waiting list control group (Webster-Stratton, 1994). These effects were maintained 3 years later. Four to 8 year old children with conduct problems who participated in Dinosaur School (the child component) showed reductions in aggressive and disruptive behavior in interactions with parents, teachers, and peers, as well as increases in prosocial behavior and positive conflict management skills compared to an untreated control group (Webster-Stratton, & Hammond, 1997). The Incredible Years has been selected by the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention as an "exemplary" best practice program and as a "Blueprints" program. The program was selected as a "Model" program by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) and has been recommended by the American Psychological Division 12 Task force as a well-established treatment for children with conduct problems.