ABSTRACT
Parents are central in most contemporary efforts to reduce emotional and behavioral difficulties (EBD) in children. Behavioral parent training and family therapy are among themostwell-established treatments of EBD in children and are typically provided as short-term outpatient services in child welfare ormental health services (Hoagwood et al. 2001;Ogden et al. 2009).Most of the approaches are based on social-ecological (Bronfenbrenner 1979) or social-learning theory (Bandura 1986; Patterson 1982) and address problems across environmental contexts like the home, the school and the local community. In this chapter, the parenting approach to working with children is represented by the Oregon model of parent management training (Forgatch and Patterson 2009), and the eco-systemic approach targeting adolescents is exemplified by multisystemic therapy (MST) (Henggeler et al. 2009). Both programs have been widely implemented and extensively evaluated in Norway during the last 10 years. These are not the only treatment programs that have proven to be effective, but they illustrate some of the underlying principles and procedures that several of the model programs have in common. They also demonstrate the need for a developmental perspective on family-based treatment of EBD.
