Working with Parents of Aggressive Children: A Practitioner's Guide

Public concerns over youth violence have led to questions about how pr ofessionals can help parents whose children are at risk for becoming v iolent. In this highly readable volume, Timothy Cavell meets these qu estions head on. His innovative model of parent therapy, Responsive P arent Therapy, is designed for families with aggressive school-age chi ldren. This model expands upon and updates current parent-training pr ograms that target primarily preschool children. Responsive Parent Th erapy assumes that the socialization of aggressive children requires s ustained participation in a particular kind of parent-child relationsh ip - one characterized by emotional acceptance, behavioral containment , and prosocial guidance and modeling. The chief task for practitione rs is to help parents find the combination of acceptance, containment, and prosocial guidance that is most realistic given the parent, the c hild, and the social context for child rearing.