Comparison of the Effect of Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) and Parent Management Training (PMT) on Nutritional Problems in children 3 to 6 years

Proper nutrition plays an important role in the brain and cognitive, emotional, and social development of children. Eating problems in preschool and primary children are common and need to be treated. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare of the effect of child-parent relationship therapy (CPRT) and parent management training (PMT) on nutritional problems in children 3 to 6 years

This is a quasi-experimental study with two experimental and one control group. The sample consisted of 75 mothers of 3 to 6 year old children with nutritional problems in Tabriz in 2017 who were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned into three groups including 2 experimental and 1 control group. Child Eating Behavior Questionair (Warle, Guthrie, Sanderson, Rapport, 2001) was used for data collection. Parent management training was performed in six 90-minute sessions and child-parent relationship therapy in ten 2-hour sessions. Follow-up was also performed one month after the intervention. Data analysis was performed using mixed between-within subject ANOVA with SPSS 20 software

The results of data analysis showed that there was a significant difference between the three groups in terms of eating problems. Both interventions reduced eating problems, but the parental training program had more efficacy in reducing both components of eating problems, namely, food intent(within group factor P=0.001, F=818.84 and between group factor P=0.001, F=31.32) and food avoidance (within group factor P=0.001, F=1237.56 and between group factor P=0.001, F=47.86).

Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the parent management training program can improve the inappropriate behaviors between mother and child by improving the parenting skills and behavioral strategies. Child-parent relationship therapy has also improved eating disorders by establishing a secure attachment relationship and meeting emotional needs.