Jennifer Schild and Joshua Adler

Mentor | Dr. Steven Kurtz

Research shows that low-SES families have high attrition rates in parent training programs. Although some low-SES families are treated at lowered fees to remove a potential barrier to treatment, this may not be enough to support attendance and treatment engagement. Despite reduced treatment costs, low-SES families may still struggle with stress, limited child care and transportation access, and other obstacles. This project will address the following question: How do low-fee families (≤$10/session) and high-fee families compare in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy completion and factors related to engagement? The researchers analyzed pre- and post-treatment ECBI scores, attendance rates, and homework completion for 36 PCIT cases in our practice. High-fee graduated families had a much greater decrease in ECBI scores (z=1.95) than high-fee non-completers (z=0.68), while low-fee graduated families had a moderately greater decrease in ECBI scores (z=1.75) than their non-completer counterparts (z=1.05). While attendance was similar for high-fee graduated families (n=14; 85.08%) and high-fee non-completers (n=16; 82.78%), low-fee non-completers (n=2) had much lower attendance (70.0%) than low-fee graduated families (n=4; 92.74%). There were no major differences in homework completion between high-fee graduated (76.31%) and low-fee graduated families (73.94%). The higher graduation rate among low-fee families (66.67%) than high-fee families (46.67%), in addition to the other findings, suggest that alleviating financial and logistical barriers can promote positive treatment outcomes for low-SES families.