The current study examined the effectiveness of an online training program on parenting children's noncompliant behavior. Eighty-two resource parents (foster, adoptive, and kinship) were recruited through Foster Parent College-an online training website-and randomly assigned to a treatment or wait-list control group. Parents in the treatment group participated in an online interactive workshop on noncompliant child behavior. Online assessments occurred before and after a 1-week intervention, and again 3 months later. Group differences at posttest were significant for parents' reports of children's positive behavior and parent knowledge related to children's noncompliant behavior. Only parents in the treatment group showed significant improvement from pre- to posttest on several other outcome measures of parenting noncompliant behavior. Satisfaction with the online workshop at posttest was very high. Results at the 3-month follow-up assessment showed significant group differences only for parents' knowledge about children's noncompliant behavior. Feedback on the workshop remained positive, with treatment group parents indicating that they felt the workshop had beneficially impacted their parenting and their children's behavior.
Keywords: automated training program; defiant child behavior; externalizing behavior; interactive web-based training; noncompliant child behavior; online parent training; parental stress; placement disruption; resource parent training.