Parent-Child Interaction Therapy: A Promising Intervention for Abusive Families‪.‬

The field of child maltreatment continues to struggle with methodological difficulties that impede the development and evaluation of empirically supported interventions. Existing treatments vary from parent education to individual child therapy. One promising treatment for abusive families is Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), which focuses on the interactions of the parent-child dyad. This intervention has been empirically supported in its use with children with behavior problems and many clinical attributes of PCIT make its use with abusive families appealing (e.g., direct coaching of skills, focus on relationship enhancement, alteration of coercive cycle). PCIT may not address all issues facing abusive families, but it does offer an effective intervention to modify maladaptive parent-child interactions. **********