An interventional study of Chicago Parent Program in Disruptive Behavior Disorder, Childhood Onset, Disruptive Behavior and Executive Function, sponsored by University of Illinois at Chicago. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 4 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-07-09.
Sponsored by University of Illinois at Chicago · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
Deficits in executive functioning (EF) disproportionately impact children living in poverty and increase risk for psychopathology, particularly disruptive behavior disorders. This randomized clinical trial seeks to determine whether childhood EF, assessed across neural and behavioral units of analysis, is an experimental therapeutic target that can be directly modified through caregiver participation in the Chicago Parent Program (CPP), if increases in EF predict reduced disruptive behavior trajectories in low-income children over a short-term follow-up period, and identify which CPP-driven parenting skill improvements are the most influential in modifying EF. This work will contribute new knowledge as to whether a cost-efficient parenting intervention, developed for and with low-income families raising young children in poverty, can modify EF, a neural behavioral mechanism implicated in risk for childhood disruptive behavior problems.
Impairments in executive functioning (EF), cognitive processes that support self-regulation, disproportionately impact children living in poverty and increase vulnerability for childhood disruptive behavior, which trigger a cascade of mental health problems and psychosocial difficulties across the lifespan. Poverty-related stress and maladaptive parenting styles have been linked to alterations of neural and behavioral EF markers in children; despite this, no studies have studied if parenting prevention programs can directly target childhood EF, and through improving EF, reduce disruptive behaviors in at-risk children. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) funded K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award project seeks to conduct a mechanistic randomized clinical trial to determine whether neural-behavioral indices of childhood EF is an experimental therapeutic target that can be modified via caregiver participation in the Chicago Parent Program. Consistent with the NIMH Research Domain Criteria framework, childhood EF will be assessed across brain and behavior measurement units. The second aim of the clinical trial seeks to evaluate whether increases in childhood neural-behavioral EF mediate the effects of CPP in reducing disruptive behavior problems over a short-term follow-up. A third exploratory aim of the project is to preliminarily test whether increases in specific parenting practices (discipline, scaffolding), previously linked to individual differences in EF, mediate the effects of CPP in predicting change in childhood neural-behavioral EF. The sample will include 90 Medicaid eligible parent-child (ages 4-5 years old) dyads and will employ a novel recruitment approach where the target child will have moderate-to-severe EF delays at baseline but does not meet diagnostic criteria for a disruptive behavior disorder.
60 studies on the registry are indexed under Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders; 7 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 180 is above the median of 100 across 51 interventional studies indexed under Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders.
Browse Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders studies →University of Illinois at Chicago is the lead sponsor of 506 studies on the registry; 120 are open to participants now.
Of its 32 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 19 (59%) have results posted.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
The American Psychiatric Association’s manual of mental health diagnoses. DSM-5 (2013, revised as DSM-5-TR in 2022) replaced DSM-IV, and some studies still name the older edition. “Meets DSM criteria for …” means diagnosed by that edition’s diagnostic criteria, usually by a clinician in an interview.
DSM diagnostic criteria
The American Psychiatric Association’s manual of mental health diagnoses. DSM-5 (2013, revised as DSM-5-TR in 2022) replaced DSM-IV, and some studies still name the older edition. “Meets DSM criteria for …” means diagnosed by that edition’s diagnostic criteria, usually by a clinician in an interview.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Half of the dyads will be randomized to participant in the Chicago Parent Program (CPP), an evidence-based parenting preventive intervention for urban poor parents with children between the ages of 2-8 with behavior problems. The Chicago Parent Program consists of 12 groups sessions (11 weekly, 1 booster session). The groups are co-facilitated by two certified group leaders. Parents learn positive parenting and effective child behavior management skills, strategies to support the child's attention, literacy, and social skills, and stress management and problem solving techniques. Skill building is accomplished through watching videos of real-life parents and children during parent-child interactions, group discussion, role-playing, and weekly homework assignments.
Behavioral: Chicago Parent Program
Half of the dyads will be randomized to the no intervention arm.
Chicago Parent Program is an evidence-based group parenting intervention designed to reduce disruptive behavior in young children (2-8 years old).
Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P)
Parents will complete the BRIEF-P to assess their child's executive functioning, and the Global Executive Composite score will be used in the analysis.
Time frame: an average of 4 months
NIH Toolbox Early Childhood Cognitive Battery
Children will be administered the NIH Toolbox Early Childhood Cognitive Battery to assess their executive functioning.
Time frame: an average of 4 months
EEG-Based indices of EF
Children will complete the Zoo Go/No-Go computerized task while EEG is simultaneously recorded. Event-related potential components that index EF and theta spectral power and error-related interchannel phase frequency between frontocentral and frontolateral regions, will be used in the analyses.
Time frame: an average of 4 months
Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL, 1.5-5)
Parents will complete the Child Behavior Checklist in order to assess children's disruptive behavior symptoms.
Time frame: through study completion, an average of 16 months
Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI)
Parents will complete the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory in order to assess children's disruptive behavior problems.
Time frame: through study completion, an average of 16 months
Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS)-COMPUTER (COMP)
Parents will be administered the clinician administered the K-SADS-COMP, which is a web-based semi-structured interview to assess children's disruptive behavior symptoms and to determine if children meet criteria for a disruptive behavior disorder.
Time frame: through study completion, an average of 16 months
Home EF Environment (HEFE)
Parents will complete the Home EF Environment questionnaire to assess parental use of scaffolding practices with their child at home.
Time frame: an average of 4 months
Parenting Dimensions Inventory (PDI)
Parents will complete the Parenting Dimensions Inventory to assess parental use of different disciplinary practices across various child-rearing situations and parental nurturance.
Time frame: an average of 4 months
Parenting Questionnaire (PQ)
Parents will complete the Parenting Questionnaire to assess parental warmth, follow-through on discipline, and use of corporal punishment.
Time frame: an average of 4 months
Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales (IFIRS)
Parents will engage in three interaction tasks (Grocery Store Task, Free-Play, Clean-up) with their child during the laboratory visits, which will be video recorded for later coding of parenting behaviors (warmth, sensitivity, harsh discipline, scaffolding) using subscales adapted from the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales (IFIRS).
Time frame: an average of 4 months
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Started Nov 2023 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Feb 2028, 51 months after the start.
Of 22 interventional studies with no phase under Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders, half reached primary completion within 39 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 22 and three quarters within 68. This study's planned 51 months is above that.
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