Collaborative problem-solving

Collaborative problem-solving is a broad practice family. Clinical trial findings apply to the named programme, population and outcome studied. Greater agency, insight, skill development and discovery of barriers remain intentions or hypotheses for generic collaborative practice; they are not established effects of every application.

The current Lives in the Balance and Think:Kids programmes have similar initials and partly shared historical terminology. Their official pages identify different current programme names.⁷⁸ The two fully reviewed randomized trials explicitly identify Greene’s Collaborative & Proactive Solutions.¹² Do not assign them indiscriminately to today’s Think:Kids version. Historical papers should retain their reported name until their protocol lineage is checked. Generic joint problem-solving is a broader editorial family, not an automatically faithful delivery of either programme.

The following records distinguish allocated participants, intervention packages and actual measurement. “Not available” describes the retrieved source, not proof that the original researchers failed to record something.

Clinical comparative evidence

The US trial included 134 clinic children aged 7–14 with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). It initially allocated 63 to parent management training (PMT), 60 to Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) and 11 to a subsequently discontinued waitlist. Parent-child treatment involved 12 weekly 75-minute sessions plus a booster, with close specialist supervision. Parent scales and clinician outcomes were assessed after treatment and at six months. Attrition and the small untreated comparison limit confidence; its diagnostic outcomes do not measure whether a child exercised agency.¹

The Australian trial randomized 160 children with ODD to CPS 81 or PMT 79. Both packages were intensively supported. Masked clinicians and parents supplied outcomes. Equivalence testing used a margin of d < 0.6, which must remain explicit when describing comparability. PMT produced the better post-treatment Clinical Global Impressions–Severity (CGI-S) rating (a clinician’s assessment of overall severity; p = .021); “all outcomes equivalent” is therefore wrong. Twenty-seven participants did not reach session 7. Fidelity sampling covered 13% of cases.²

Both studies excluded autistic participants and some other developmental groups. The defensible interpretation is limited direct applicability of those trials to such groups, not evidence of ineffectiveness or a reason to refuse accessible collaboration. A subgroup excluded by trial design must not be silently treated as represented. Programme-level benefit also does not isolate the effect of any single conversation, worksheet, training element or proposed mechanism.

Service and school evidence

The inpatient abstract describes 755 children across 998 admissions, with service records before and after implementation. Restraint and seclusion declined, while staff injuries temporarily increased early in implementation. There was no reported concurrent randomized comparator. The service change is a signal to investigate; it does not establish that generic collaborative practice alone caused the change or that implementation is harmless.³

The 2011 school pilot abstract reports decreased teacher stress and discipline referrals with training and consultation.⁴ The 2016 year-long project abstract reports changes in adult stress and student behaviour/regulation ratings.⁵ Original full texts were not available in this pass. Sample size, comparator, missing data and fidelity remain unverified; no precise efficacy claim is admitted from either abstract. Stress ratings and referral records are different outcomes from the young person’s experience or access.

A 2026 synthesis was located through the authors’ university record and indexed publisher content. The complete page returned 403, so full methods, lineage decisions and duplicate-cohort handling were not examined. Its pooled estimates are not imported into A004. The review is a priority retrieval lead, not 12 additional trials or independent confirmation of every generic-family claim.⁶

Record the precise recurring problem; how the person could express concerns; constraints; options they could influence; what adults actually changed; and whether the agreed solution addressed the original difficulty. Observe timing, communication access, workload, unwanted pressure, fatigue, refusal and ability to change course. A completed task or quiet meeting is insufficient evidence of collaboration.

For named delivery add manual/version, training and supervision, received sessions, fidelity assessment, adaptations and co-supports. For outcomes distinguish child report, parent report, teacher report, clinician judgement and records. Keep behavioural counts, global impairment, relationships and agency separate. Missing adverse-event reporting is not a clean safety finding. Clinical or service protocols require their own suitability and implementation decisions; this profile is an editorial evidence record, not an individual treatment recommendation.

Public searching and citation chaining on 11–12 September 2026 covered named identities, randomized ODD trials, school consultation, inpatient restrictive-practice outcomes and recent reviews. Null/differential results and adverse signals were sought explicitly. This targeted reconstruction was not preregistered, exhaustive or formally graded. Search-engine indexing and inaccessible full texts limit coverage. The machine record retains query purposes, selected records and exclusions.

Full-text primary sources supported the main clinical appraisal. Official programme material served only identity/guidance purposes. Original author abstracts were treated as bounded evidence leads, and third-party summaries did not supply missing methods. Secondary analyses from an existing trial were not counted as independent samples. An older 2004 trial and a 2020 inpatient paper remain retrieval leads where original access was insufficient; their omission is not a negative efficacy finding.

• Identity and version: Name the component or programme, its edition or protocol where relevant, and the purpose being evaluated.
• Source role: Separate direct comparative evidence, descriptive implementation findings, guidance, theoretical support and firsthand experience.
• Population and setting: Retain the studied age, communication/access characteristics and setting. State when an intended application lies outside them.
• Intended and actual delivery: Record the planned components, frequency and duration (dose) separately from what was received, by whom, and with what support or interruptions.
• Comparison and other support: Name the actual comparison and concurrent changes. If there is no comparison group or condition (comparator) or it is unreported, say so rather than supply an assumed usual-care condition.
• Outcome and reporter: Record the outcome, time point and reporter. Keep the young person’s account separate from someone else’s judgement on their behalf (proxy report), and access or participation separate from task performance.
• Delivery as intended (fidelity) and adaptation: Record whether the core components were delivered and describe adaptations; distinguish an adapted application from the protocol tested.
• Burden and unwanted effects: Record time, effort, practical access, cost or workload where known, alongside refusal, fatigue, distress, restriction and other unwanted consequences. Unreported burden is not evidence of no burden.

This common key applies to the retained source summaries below. Shorter headings such as design, dose or findings are read in that context. The key supplies no missing source data, converts no proxy report into recipient testimony and assigns no new certainty grade.

1. 1.

   Ollendick et al. (online 2015; issue 2016). Parent Management Training (PMT) and Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS): A Randomized Control Trial for Oppositional Youth. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 45(5):591–604. doi:10.1080/15374416.2015.1004681. Source. Access: Full author manuscript.

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2. 2.

   Murrihy et al. (2023; online 2022). Community-Delivered Collaborative and Proactive Solutions and Parent Management Training for Oppositional Youth: A Randomized Trial. Behavior Therapy54(2):400–417. doi:10.1016/j.beth.2022.10.005. Source. Access: Full published article, university repository.

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3. 3.

   Martin et al. (2008). Reduction of restraint and seclusion through collaborative problem solving: a five-year prospective inpatient study. Psychiatric Services59(12):1406–1412. doi:10.1176/ps.2008.59.12.1406. Source. Access: Original article abstract via PubMed; full text not read.

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4. 4.

   Schaubman, Stetson & Plog (2011). Reducing Teacher Stress by Implementing Collaborative Problem Solving in a School Setting. School Social Work Journal35(2):72–93. ERIC EJ954335. Source. Access: Author-supplied abstract in ERIC; full text retrieval failed.

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5. 5.

   Stetson & Plog (2016). Collaborative Problem Solving in Schools: Results of a Year-Long Consultation Project. School Social Work Journal40(2):17–36. ERIC EJ1100330. Source. Access: Author-supplied abstract in ERIC; full text retrieval failed.

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6. 6.

   Norman, Fortune, Hehir & Sachsenmaier (2026). Evaluating Collaborative & Proactive Solutions Across Settings: Mini Meta-Analysis of Behavioral Outcomes and Relational Implications. doi:10.1080/07317107.2026.2681594. Source. Access: Institutional author abstract plus indexed publisher passages; full page blocked 403.

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7. 7.

   Lives in the Balance. Our solution. Accessed 11 September 2026. Source. Access: Official page.

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8. 8.

   Think:Kids, Massachusetts General Hospital. What Is Collaborative Problem Solving? Accessed 11 September 2026. Source. Access: Official page.

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