What outcomes can be expected from the treatment component of TAPP-C?

Excerpted from Part 1: About the Program - TAPP-C: Clinician’s Manual for Preventing and Treating Juvenile Fire Involvement.

Research examining the effectiveness of PMT programs for the parents of children with disruptive behaviour difficulties indicates that these strategies can lead to substantial improvements in the children’s behaviour (Cunningham, Bremner & Boyle, 1995; Kazdin, Siegel & Bass, 1992; Webster-Stratton, Hollinsworth & Kolpacoff, 1989). CBT programs for children with disruptive behaviour problems show similarly effective results (Augimeri, Koegl & Goldberg, 2001; Kazdin, Bass, Siegel & Thomas, 1989; Kendall & Braswell, 1993; Larson & Lochman, 2002; Webster, Augimeri & Koegl, 2002).

These findings hold true both when the treatments are administered individually (that is, PMT only or CBT only) as well as when they are administered in combination (PMT + CBT) (Kazdin, Siegel & Bass, 1992). However, treatment that provides a combination of PMT and CBT is more effective than either alone (Kazdin, Siegel & Bass, 1992). Accordingly, it is advised that both the TAPP-C caregiver intervention module and the child intervention module be administered.

It is also clear from the research that using a collaborative model of intervention is associated with more positive treatment outcomes in families where children are experiencing behavioural difficulties than using models where the clients have no interactive input (Webster-Stratton & Hancock, 1998).

Preliminary evaluations of TAPP-C

Preliminary evaluations of the treatment component of TAPP-C are promising. Over four years, approximately 200 families have participated in the TAPP-C research project at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. These families received:

• comprehensive risk assessments
• an earlier version of the interventions in this manual
• fire-safety education from the fire department and
• in many cases, referral for other mental health services.

Follow-up evaluations conducted with these families one year after receiving the initial services suggest that TAPP-C is as effective as firesetting treatment programs currently described in the literature (e.g., Kolko, 2001). Similar to Kolko’s findings, approximately three-quarters of TAPP-C parents report no further fire involvement by their children (MacKay & Henderson, 2002).

These results, taken together with evidence for the efficacy of PMT and CBT from the research literature, provide preliminary support for the TAPP-C treatment component as a promising intervention for a clinically-referred sample of families with children or adolescents who have engaged in firesetting or other types of fire involvement.

Future research plans include conducting a randomized, controlled treatment study using this manual, to further examine the effectiveness of the TAPP-C treatment component.

Factors that may affect success or failure of TAPP-C treatment

On the basis of the evidence from studies of therapies with children who have behavioural problems, the success of TAPP-C is likely to be affected by the following:

• whether or not the caregiver and the child attend and complete all sessions
• the extent of client participation in the session and
• the completion of home practice exercises.

Similar to other treatment programs, the effectiveness of TAPP-C will undoubtedly be affected by:

• parent factors, such as mental health issues
• child factors, such as the severity of the firesetting behaviour and other psychopathology and
• therapist factors, such as extent of clinical experience.

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