Improving Delay Discounting to Decrease Harsh Parenting Among Parents Receiving Substance Use Treatment

The 5-Trial Adjusting Delay (Temporal Discounting) Task is a computer based system which uses an adjusting algorithm to determine the amount of immediately available money that is equivalent to a large sum that is delayed by seven discrete durations of time presented in a randomized order (i.e., 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, and 25 years). The length of delay is titrated based on participants' responses to previous items to determine an "indifference point" (the point at which the sums of money are perceived as equal). This is then converted to a k-value and logarithmically transformed to ensure the values are normally distributed, making them unbounded by min and max values. Higher k-values indicate a greater preference for immediate rewards. Change in Delay Discounting is evaluated by comparing baseline k-value scores with scores at the intervention (approximately 1 week after baseline) and the post-intervention assessment (approximately 4 weeks after baseline).

The Consideration of Future Consequences Scale-Parenting Adapted (CFCS-14-PA) is a 14-item self-report questionnaire composed of two subscales reflecting either immediate or future orientation related to parents interactions with their children. Items range from "not at all like me" (1) to "very much like me" (5) and are summed to create a total score with higher values reflecting greater future orientation. Scores range from 14 to 70. Change in CFCS-14-PA score is measured by comparing scores at the post-intervention assessment (approximately 4 weeks after baseline) with baseline scores.

Parents and their children will complete a 20-minute interaction task, including 5 min. of free play, a 10 min. "homework" task, and a 5 min. clean up task. Interactions are recorded and coded using the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System (DPICS), measuring the quality of parent and child interactions. The task is coded for 7 subscales, yielding 2 composite scores: positive parenting (a sum of: unlabeled praise, labeled praise, positive touch, reflection, and behavior description) and negative parenting (a sum of: negative talk and negative touch). Each instance of a behaviors described in the subscale (e.g., a parent giving unlabeled praise) is coded as one "point," which are summed into a subscale (no max or min values). Higher values indicate greater positive or negative parenting. Change in positive parenting and negative parenting scores will be calculated by comparing baseline scores with scores at the post-intervention sessions (approximately 4 weeks after baseline).

The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) is a 42-item self-report measure of parenting behaviors which yields five subscales: (1) positive involvement with children (range 10-50, higher = more involvement), (2) use of positive parenting strategies (range 6-30, higher = more positive strategies), (3) poor parental monitoring/supervision (range 10-50, higher = worse supervision), (4) inconsistent discipline (range 6-30, higher = more inconsistent discipline), and (5) use of corporal punishment (range 3-15, higher = more corporal punishment). Items are summed to create subscale scores. Change in each of the five APQ subscale scores will be measured by comparing post-intervention scores (approximately 4 weeks after baseline) with baseline scores.