Reducing Child Tantrums through Self-instructional Parent Training Materials

Abstract

Parents used self-instructional booklets to decrease their children's (aged 3-8) tantrums. In each of the ten families, a multiple-baseline design across three problems, tantrums and two others, was used. Parent data indicate a mean improvement of 14 percent of the maximum possible from baseline means, with six of ten children showing improvement based on mean performance for baseline and treatment. If improvement is measured from the last part of treatment only, all subjects but one show improvement. All parent final consumer ratings were positive. All interobserver reliabilities exceeded 80 percent agreement weighted for occurrence and nonoccurrence. Two sets of correlations between parent recall data and observer data produced median correlations of .69 and .48. Percentage agreement between observer and parent interval data produced a coefficient of 87 percent. Results suggested that parents, using self-instructional materials alone, could reduce children's tantrums.