Parents’ Self-Efficacy and Children’s Behavioral Problems Before and After SNAP: A Community-Based Intervention Program

The Stop Now and Plan (SNAP) intervention program is designed specifically for children with serious conduct problems and their families. The program also focuses on improving parents’ self-efficacy (PSE). The purpose of this study was to examine how the program impacts children’s behavior problems and PSE, and to explore the bidirectional longitudinal associations between children’s antisocial behaviors and their parents’ self-efficacy. Our study included 62 boys and 18 girls with mean age of 8.2 years old (SD = 1.8, range from 6 to 12 years) and their parents or caregivers. For each family, one parent or caregiver was asked to complete the psychometrics assessments even if both parents participated in the SNAP program. The following assessment tools were used in the pre- and post-tests: The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Teacher Report Form (TRF), Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), and Tool to Measure Parent Self-Efficacy (TOPSE). Latent growth curve analyses indicated that SNAP effectively decreased antisocial behaviors (parents-reported effect sizes ranged from 0.39 to 0.66) and increased prosocial behaviors (effect size of 0.31) for participating children; parental self-efficacy also increased (effect sizes ranged from 0.14 to 0.56). Further, parallel process latent growth curve analysis indicated negative relationships between the PSE and behavior problems. Parents whose children had higher levels of behavior problems at admission were more likely to show greater improvements in PSE through the program. Our results further support SNAP’s focus on improving PSE as a mechanism to reduce behavior problems.