Toward generic principles of treating parents and children: integrating psychotherapy with the school-aged child and early family intervention.

Generic principles governing the outcome and process of the treatment of children and their families can be generated from both research on the psychotherapy of school-aged children and early family intervention. Evidence indicates that the amenability of the child or parent to treatment and the comprehensiveness, duration, and intensity of the helping process are significant parameters. Definition of significant early family intervention roles allows linkage to various therapeutic roles with school-aged children and forces the recognition that most treatment situations involve more roles than are officially recognized. This articulation of the profile of intervention roles among poverty level, first-time parents at risk for neglecting their infant drew on several bodies of theory: psychoanalytic, cognitive, behavioral, social cognitive, and positive reinforcement principles, and advocacy and direct assistance as used in clinical social casework.