1. Julie C. Dunsmore, Jordan A. Booker, Na’ama Atzaba-Poria, Sarah Ryan, Ross W. Greene, & Thomas H. Ollendick Introduction Participants and Procedures Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) includes symptoms such as temper tantrums and argumentative and defiant behavior (DSM, American Psychiatric Association, APA 2013). ODD is associated with children’s conflict with parents even after accounting for parents’ own antisocial behavior (Bornovalova et al., 2013). It is important to better understand processes of change in treatment for children with ODD because of the deleterious effects of ODD on children’s long- term outcomes as well as family functioning (Greene et al., 2002; Kazdin, 2005, 2009). The primary purpose of this study was to examine emotion-related processes of change in families receiving treatment for children with ODD. Specifically, we investigated whether parental emotion coaching predicted changes in families’ effective problem- solving and overall cohesion from pre- to post-treatment. Emotion coaching, a socialization style validating children’s negative emotions and instructing about appropriate emotional expression (Gottman, Katz, & Hooven, 1997), is associated with emotional competence in both typically-developing and at-risk samples (Katz, Maliken, & Stettler, 2012). Because emotion coaching involves acceptance of and effective engagement with children’s negative emotion, families with a parent high in emotion coaching might be more effective at resolving conflicts and maintaining relationships. This might enhance increases in family emotional functioning across treatment. Measures Maternal emotion coaching (pre-treatment). Composite of: Belief that positive emotions are valuable (α =.77) Belief that negative emotions are valuable (α =.93) Belief that parents need to guide children’s emotions (α =.77; these three scales from the short form of the Parents’ Beliefs about Children’s Emotions scale, Halberstadt et al., 2008) Observed encouragement of children’s positive emotion Observed encouragement of children’s negative emotion (ICCs >.80; both observed during conversation about family memories) Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1981; pre- & post-treatment) Family cohesion (αs >.79) Family conflict (αs >.68) Problem Solving Task (Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (1992; pre-, mid-, & post-treatment). Parents were asked to select a single problem to discuss with children for 7 minutes. Conversations coded for: Maternal positive involvement Child positive involvement Extent to which family reached a realistic solution (all ICCs >.73) Social Development Lab (socdev@vt.edu) Emotion Coaching Predicts Change in Family Functioning Across Treatment for Children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder Presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Philadelphia, PA, March 2015 Effects of Maternal Emotion Coaching on Improvement in Child Positive Involvement in Problem-Solving and in Family Cohesion Overall, families showed improvement over the course of treatment, in family realistic solutions, cohesion and lower conflict. Furthermore, emotion coaching was related to greater increases in child positive involvement when discussing conflict, and in family cohesion. Assignment to CPS rather than PMT was related to greater increases in child positive involvement when discussing conflict. It is important to further study emotion-related family processes in treatment outcome studies. One hundred two mothers with children meeting diagnostic criteria for ODD (mean age = 9.57 years; range 7 – 14 years; 65 boys, 37 girls) participated as part of a larger NIMH-funded clinical trial. Pre-treatment assessments included clinical diagnostic interviews with trained assessors, questionnaires, and parent-child interaction tasks. Families were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups. Parent Management Training (PMT) is an empirically supported treatment for ODD that teaches parents to use contingency management procedures (Ollendick & King, 2012). Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS; Greene, 1998) emphasizes active involvement of parents in collaboratively solving problems that contribute to oppositional episodes. Each treatment was designed for 12 weekly 75- minute sessions. Mid-treatment assessment took place after the 6th treatment session, and two weeks after the completion of treatment, families participated in a post-treatment assessment. We acknowledge support from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH 5R01MH076141) and the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment at Virginia Tech Conditional Growth Models for Level-2 Treatment Placement and Emotion Coaching Effects on Problem- Solving and Family Functioning Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to examine change over time in families’ problem-solving behavior (mother and child positive involvement, realistic solutions), cohesion, and conflict. Emotion coaching and treatment placement was included in models. Analyses Conclusions Fixed Effects Random Effects Time, π 1 Time Outcome Intercept β 10 PMT/CPS β 11 Coaching β 12 r1r1 Maternal Positive Involvement.03 (.05).12 (.06) †.02 (.01) †.03 † Child Positive Involvement.00 (.05).18 (.06) **.04 (.02) *.01 Family Realistic Solutions.22 (.08) ** -.12 (.10).01 (.02).00 Family Cohesion.28 (.12) *.00 (.18).07 (.03) *.07 † Family Conflict-.50 (.15) ** -.26 (.23).01 (.04).05 Note. † p <.10, * p <.05. ** p <.01. The level-2 effect of CPS is a dummy variable for treatment placement, 0 = PMT, 1 = CPS. The level-2 effect of emotion coaching is grand centered around the mean. Given primary interest in the Level-1 effect of Time and Level-2 effects of Treatment Placement and Coaching, the Overall Intercept effects (β00, r0) are not included in this table. Model estimation used full maximum likelihood estimation. Effect of Treatment Placement on Improvement in Child Positive Involvement in Problem-Solving