This study evaluated the effects of PCTP on child problem behaviour, parenting behaviour, and parenting stress compared with UC provided by PCH. The study enrolled parents of children with mild psychosocial problems according to the SDQ. We found no significant differences between PCTP and UC on either the primary or secondary outcome measures, but PCTP yielded slightly better results than UC on most of these outcomes. Only in one SDQ field, namely, conduct problems, was a significant difference detected, which was in favor of the PCTP condition. In general, a decrease in child psychosocial problems and parenting stress was found for both PCTP and UC.
We found no significant advantages of PCTP on either primary or secondary outcomes. This contrasts with the findings for several previous studies on the effectiveness of PCTP, which suggested greater and more significant effects of this intervention [
16,
17,
33] in terms of child and parent outcomes. There are several possible explanations for these differences. First, we compared the intervention with another treatment, UC provided by CHPs, whereas previous studies mostly compared a treated group with a group on a waiting list for such treatment [
17,
33]. The improvements in both treatment groups in our study during treatment support this explanation. Second, parents were included after an initial population-based screening to identify psychosocial problems in their child, whereas previous studies included only parents who explicitly requested advice about child behavioural problems or parenting issues [
17,
33]. This might have resulted in a different study population in terms of child age, characteristics of the participating parents, and nature of the detected problems. Third, the instruments used to assess our study outcomes were applied independently of the instruments used to monitor progression in parenting and child behaviour during and after the intervention. This might have affected the way parents completed the questionnaires. Fourth, we were unable to obtain the number of participants needed according to our power analysis, and small treatment groups may have led to the absence of a significant clinical effect of PCTP. However, our power analysis was based on a difference in improvement on the SDQ of three points as being clinically relevant [
22], whereas we found a difference of only 1.94. Because this study is underpowered the precision of the estimate of effect is reduced, implying that the real effect could be bigger or smaller. Nevertheless, even if we had reached the intended sample size, it is unlikely that we would have found a substantial difference. Therefore, the advantage of PCTP seems limited compared with UC. Smaller effects may still have a relatively large effect on population health, given the large share of children with mild psychosocial problems [
34]; however, it is doubtful whether such small effects outweigh the effort made per child by the parents, child, and professionals as involved. A fifth explanation could be that because some interventions were discontinued prematurely, they may have been less effective. PCTP is an protocol-based intervention, and treatment adherence is very important, thus deviations in its execution would have an influence on its effectiveness [
35]. However, in our study the majority of the PCTP interventions were completed.
Strengths and limitations
This study has some important strengths. First, we randomized to prevent selection and allocation bias, resulting in two comparable groups. Furthermore, the study evaluated the effectiveness of PCTP in a preventive healthcare organization delivered by regular staff from multiple centers, and therefore mirrors everyday practice. Contrary to earlier studies, we also assessed the long-term effects at 6 and 12 months after intervention in both the intervention and control group. A broad array of outcome measures gave an understanding of possible intervention effects in many areas of child behaviour and parenting. Moreover, to overcome any social desirability bias, parents did not complete the questionnaires in the presence of the CHP who conducted the intervention. Instruments to study the effect were offered to the parents separately from the treatment process.
This study also has some limitations. As already indicated, it was underpowered and the treatment integrity (that is, the number of delivered intervention sessions) was not optimal. During the trial, PCTP was implemented as routine care in some of the participating regions. To prevent contamination, we had to exclude these regions. Moreover, in the remaining regions, the inflow of eligible parents of children with mild psychosocial problems was lower than expected, because some parents were not invited to participate because of a high workload for CHPs or the reluctance of either the professional or the parent to participate in an RCT. This led to a lower than intended sample size. Participation of only a small proportion of eligible parents in this study may have affected the external validity of this study, that is, the application of the results of the trial to the general population of screening-detected parents and children. Nevertheless, this study reflects everyday practice in care. Furthermore, we only collected data on parent-reported child behaviour and parenting behaviour, and not from other information sources such as teachers or professionals. However, self-report has shown to be a good indicator for child problems [
36].