The University’s Child and Family Center received a grant of more than $10.1 million to embark on a five-year study.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health awarded the center the grant to begin “The Early Step Project,” a study focusing on parenting two-year-olds. The three-site study is designed to work in conjunction with the Women, Infants and Children programs in Eugene, Pittsburgh, Pa., and Charlottesville, Va.
A total of 720 families in the WIC program — an organization whose mission is to assist low-income women and children — will participate in the study.
The research is meant to determine how parents can help prevent the early emergence of behavior problems, which can be a major risk factor for substance abuse, said Tom Dishion, founder and director of research at the Child and Family Center.
Dishion said he and colleagues Frances Gardner, of the University of Oxford in England, and Daniel Shaw, of the University of Pittsburgh, established the idea. Melvin Wilson, of the University of Virginia, also contributed to the process.
The idea first arose from discussions at a 1999 conference in Barcelona, Spain, called the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology.
Dishion became interested in helping prevent risky behavior in children when he was a student.
“When I was an undergraduate in (the University of California at) Santa Barbara, I worked as a child care worker,” Dishion said. “I noticed that some of the children we were serving had behavioral problems that interfered with their health and happiness.”
Project researchers have now developed an effective method of parenting for the study that is adaptable case by case for each of the children and their families.
“We have a strength-based intervention program, so rather than concentrating on defects, we emphasize strength,” Dishion said.
At heart, the method involves three key ingredients.
The researchers help parents anticipate situations that could lead to bad behavior, emphasize nonphysical discipline and focus on developing a good parent-child relationship.
“We focus on a set of skills we call family management skills that involve using proactive strategies for encouraging positive behavior,” he said.
Dishion said the panel of scientists chose his grant application because of its solid science and focus on toddlers.
Many say problems that lead to substance abuse begin at a young age.
“We’d like to say it’s never too early and it’s never too late to help kids,” said Jeff Sprague, co-director of the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior.
Sprague said children develop habits in their formative years, which may lead to problems when they are older.
Other researchers concur.
“There are certain red flag things that will get (the parent) in trouble later in life,” said Hill Walker, co-director of the Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior.
Walker said warning signs are high-level aggression, severe tantrums and strongly oppositional, defiant behavior.
“The more practice vulnerable children have in behavior problems, the more difficult they are to change,” he said.