Heterogeneity of Treatment Effects of PMTO in Foster Care: A Latent Profile Transition Analysis

Parent Management Training-Oregon (PMTO) model has demonstrated significantly improvements in parental functioning and child’s social skills and socio-emotional well-being among families whose children were placed in foster care. Yet, there is a dearth of studies examining for whom PMTO works the best. The aim of this study was to examine the potential familial typologies in relation to parental and children’s functioning and how these typologies change after participating in PMTO. The sample consisted of 918 children in foster care and their biological parents recruited in September 2012-2014 in a Midwestern state and randomized to in-home PMTO (n = 461) or services as usual (SAU) (n = 457). Latent profile transition analysis examines how participation in PMTO influences changes in children’s behavior and their biological parent’s functioning over time while placed in out-of-home care. PMTO families reporting high parental functioning and children’s social-emotional outcomes were more likely to move to a higher functioning class (OR = 0.22, p = 0.01) than SAU families all characteristics equal. Yet, when families experienced poor parental functioning of all four types, PMTO was not helpful in improving parent’s functioning and children’s problem behaviors (OR = 4.41, p = 0.01). This study provides empirical support for child welfare agencies to sustain the PMTO program to improve children’s emotional and behavioral health.