Effectiveness of an indigenous parent training program on change in parenting styles and delinquent tendencies (challenging behaviors) in Pakistan: A randomized controlled trial

The effectiveness of an indigenous parent training program was examined within selected Pakistani families. For this purpose, 110 parents of adolescents with above-average levels of delinquent tendencies (challenging behaviors), who were screened and chosen from five randomly selected schools in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, participated in the study. The adolescents' parents were randomly placed into either an intervention group or a control group. Members of the intervention group participated in seven sessions of parent training, which aimed to increase behaviors associated with an authoritative parenting style. Findings show that participants in the parent training program displayed an increase in authoritative parenting behaviors and a decrease in authoritarian and neglectful parenting behaviors at both posttest and follow-up. In addition, their children showed reductions in parent-reported challenging behaviors. Declines in challenging behaviors were explained by increases in authoritative parenting behaviors, although not all intervention effects could be explained by such increases. We conclude that, similar to Western countries, the authoritative parenting style is the most effective parenting style for managing adolescents' challenging behaviors in Pakistan. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.