Remediation and Prevention of Aggression

An Evaluation of the Regional Intervention Program over a Quarter Century

Strain, Phillip S.
Timm, Matthew A.

University of Colorado at Denver
Child Care Consulting Program, Tennessee Voices for Children, Nashville

This research was sponsored by a field-initiated research grant from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, to the University of Colorado at Denver. The authors express appreciation to the past and present family members and staff associated with the Regional Intervention Program (RIP), Nashville, Tennessee, and the RIP Expansion programs throughout Tennessee who provided essential contributions to this research effort. The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (TDMHDD) provided funding support to the RIP Advisory Committee, Inc., for initial research design and pilot study efforts. Special thanks go to Larry Thompson, Ph.D., Director, Children and Adolescent Services, Mental Health Services, TDMHDD, for more than a quarter century of guidance and support to the Regional Intervention Program system in Tennessee and beyond, and to Vincent L. Parrish, LCSW, who returned from a 20-year hiatus to conduct skilled and sensitive interviews with two generations of family members.

Accepted March 2, 2001

Behavioral Disorders 26(4):p 297-313, October 2001. | DOI: 10.1177/019874290102600409

This article presents an overview of the Regional Intervention Program (RIP) and describes ongoing studies to examine the long-term effects of behavioral skill training for parents of preschool children who engaged in severe forms of aggression and antisocial behavior. The results of evaluation studies on RIP clients have shown that (a) the initial intervention experience yields predictable and replicable outcomes for adults and children; (b) outcomes for children and adult clients maintain for periods ranging from 3 to 9 years, based on direct observational assessments in school and home settings; (c) these intermediate follow-up results are strongly influenced by early enrollment in the program, with children who began at the earliest ages experiencing more favorable outcomes; (d) the 3- to 9-year follow-up results for home-based observation are replicable across clients who received treatment from an entirely different intervention staff; (e) adolescent and adult outcomes indicate long-term maintenance of intervention gains; and (f) former adult consumers consider RIP intervention strategies to be highly acceptable.