Ecological validity issues in the assessment of conduct disorder children and their mothers : a comparison of home and clinic observations

This study explored the ecological validity of parent training programs in the clinic by assessing the setting generality of mother-child interactions across home and clinic settings. The subjects consisted of thirteen multi-stressed, low income mothers and their conduct disorder children (mean age of 8 years) who were observed four to five times in the clinic during interactive sessions and in the home setting. It was hypothesized that setting generality would be observed at the level of molar relational events and not at the level of molecular frequencies. Using Patterson's (1982) compliance model and Wahler and Dumas's (1986) predictability model as a basis to conduct this research, the main behaviors investigated were child and mother aversive behaviors, mother compliance (giving in), and mother indiscriminate behaviors. The compliance model predicts that in dysfunctional dyads in both settings, child aversive behavior will lead to an increase in mother compliance behavior. The predictability model predicts that in dysfunctional dyads in both settings, mother inconsistent behavior will lead to an increase in child aversive behavior. Lag sequential analysis of the treatment dyads' interactions across both settings was in accordance with the compliance and predictability traps, but there was a strong trend towards significance of setting for frequency of behaviors. In order to determine if the behavioral patterns observed in treatment families were limited to dysfunctional dyads, these dyads were also compared with seven well-adjusted mother-child dyads in the home setting. Analyses of the control dyads revealed no incidence of the compliance trap and a significantly lower occurrence of predictability traps when compared with treatment dyads. In the control families, mother aversive and indiscriminate behavior were more likely to be contingent on child aversive behavior, whereas treatment mothers across both settings exhibited less predictable patterns of interaction in their distal responses, suggesting a momentum of maladaptive patterns of behavior. Implications of this research were discussed in terms of the treatment of conduct disorder children.