ooO5-7YO8/ 78/ oWl-0235 $02.00/ O zyxwvutsrqp PARENT BEHAVIORAL TRAINING TO MODIFY CHILD NONCOMPLIANCE: EFFECTS ON UNTREATED SIBLINGS LEWIS HUMPHREYS, REX FOREHAND, ROBERT McMAHON and MARK ROBERTS University of Georgia Summary-The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to examine changes in parent behavior toward an untreated sibling after parent behavioral training to modify a target child’s noncompliance and (b) to examine changes in the untreated sibling’s behavior. Eight clinic- referred children and their mothers served as the subjects. Parent training consisted of the use of a \tandardiled clinic program to modify child noncompliance. The outcome measure was home observation\ of the parent and untreated child’s interactions. The results indicated significant change< in both the parent’s behavior and the untreated sibling’s noncompliance. Although parent behavior training is an effective method of modifying child problems in the home (Berkowitz and Graziano, 1972; O’Dell, 1974), the effect of such training on the behavior of untreated siblings of the target child has received minimum attention. Resick, Forehand and McWhorter (1976) and Lavigueur, Peterson, Sheese and Peterson (1973) each reported positive changes in a child when a sibling received treat- ment. Unfortunately, both of these studies were case reports involving only one family each. In the only group study, Arnold, Levine and Patter- son (1975) reported decreases in siblings’ deviant behavior when the target child was treated. However, in two-thirds of the treated families, one or more of the siblings were actively involved in the treatment program implemented by the parents, thus making it difficult to interpret the results. It has been hypothesized that parent behavior change produces the change in the untreated sibling’s behavior (cf. Arnold et al., 1975). However, the Lavigueur ef al. (1973) study was the only one which reported parent behavior data; consequently, the hypothesis that parent training and, subsequently, parent behavior change produce change in the untreated siblings’ behavior has received minimum sup- port. The purpose of the present study was to ex- amine the behavior of an untreated sibling when parents are trained to modify noncompliance of a treated child. Both the sibling’s compliance and the parent’s behavior directed toward the sibling were measured. Furthermore, none of the siblings was involved in treatment. Non- compliance was selected as the target behavior as it is the most frequently reported problem of clinic-referred and non-clinic children (Forehand, 1977). The parent training program that was utilized has been demonstrated effectively to modify selected parent behaviors and child non- compliance in clinic settings (Forehand and King, 1974, 1977; Hanf and Kling, 1973; Peed, Roberts and Forehand, 1977). Furthermore, these changes have generalized to the home (Peed et al., 1977). The change in home behavior has been maintained at a one year follow-up and has not been associated with any adverse child behavior change in school (Forehand, Sturgis, McMahon, Aguar, Green, Wells and Breiner, 1978). Finally, it has been demonstrated that none of the parent and child behavior changes is the result of the passage of time or unspecified environmental factors since Peed et al. (1977) found no changes from pre to post- treatment in any parent or child behaviors in the home over a 30 day period for a waiting list control group. A control group was not viewed This research was supported in part by a University of Georgia Research Council grant and NIMH grant MH-28859-01. Reprints should be addressed to Rex Forehand, Psychology Department, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. 235