Introduction: The purpose of this research is to investigate and compare the effectiveness of parent-child therapy based on behavioral techniques and coping therapy based on cognitive techniques on reduction of the intensity of child behavior problems in a sample of preschool children.
Method: This was a semi experimental study with pre and post test along with 6 month follow up. 90 children with behavior disorder were selected from the kindergartens of Shahindej city. Then three groups of the children were selected randomly and mothers were also randomly assigned to two experimental groups (29 subjects) and a comparison group (30 subjects). Each group completed the Eyberg child behavior inventory before and after the intervention. This measurement was done again six month later to investigate the effect of the therapy. Parent-child interaction therapy and coping therapy were carried out for 12 sessions (three times a week) for experimental group. The control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed by Levine test, analysis of variance with repeated measure
Results: The findings showed that parent-child therapy and coping therapy were very effective in reducing the intensity of behavior problem. The result of therapy in 6-month follow up also showed lower levels of intensity of child behavior problems.
Discussion and Conclusion: Generally, the results indicate that both therapies were effective equally in reducing the intensity of the symptoms. But there's no significant difference in the result of the two therapy groups by the method of analysis of variance and repeated measure.