Exploring Predictors of Student and Parent Attendance in a Tier 2 School-Based Program: Implications for Optimizing Attendance in the Coping Power Program

Abstract There is growing interest in the use of multi-component Tier 2 preventive interventions to help address youth behavior problems in schools, yet parent and youth attendance at sessions can be suboptimal, and, if not optimized, can compromise outcomes. The current study explored baseline predictors of parent and youth attendance at the school-based Early Adolescent Coping Power (EACP) program, a preventive intervention for middle schoolers with externalizing problems. Data come from the 375 seventh graders (62% male, 72% Black) who were in the 20 middle schools randomized to receive the EACP intervention and their parents. We identified two latent profiles of baseline presenting problems, which were related to program attendance. Youth with comorbid internalizing and externalizing symptoms were more likely to attend student sessions than students with externalizing problems alone. Parent involvement at school was consistently predictive of high parent EACP attendance, whereas parents of female students were consistently less likely to attend EACP parent sessions. Taken together, these findings highlight baseline predictors of student and parent EACP attendance. School-based clinicians interested in optimizing attendance in Tier 2 interventions, like EACP, may want to screen for teacher-reported parent involvement in school and youth internalizing and externalizing symptoms.