These analyses suggest the efficacy of a health maintenance framework in general and the FCU in particular for the prevention of early emergence of conduct problems. The typical developmental trend is for disruptive and defiant behaviors in young children to decrease from age 2 through 5 (Shaw et al., 2003; Tremblay, 2000), as we found in this sample of 731 toddlers and their families. When we examined the effects of the FCU from age 2 to 5 on parent report of oppositional-defiant behavior, we found a small but statistically reliable intervention effect when using an ITT framework. This result suggests that the normative decreases in disruptive behavior seen in the control group are enhanced if parents are provided some support with parenting practices. More important, perhaps, is the significant decrease in teacher reports of oppositional problems by Grade 2 (7.5 years) in the school context. Teachers were unaware of the intervention condition of each study child, thus this effect is suggestive of long-term benefits of parenting support in early childhood.
