Stepping Stones Triple P: the importance of putting the findings into context

The Stepping Stones Triple P (SSTP) parenting program is an evidence-based program for parents of children with a disability. A trial of SSTP was recently published in BMC Medicine, which reported results of a randomized controlled trial comparing SSTP to care-as-usual. Although the paper described what should be an important replication trial of SSTP, there are significant shortcomings to the scientific approach of the reporting that need to be addressed. The paper initially cites only a few published SSTP studies and describes evidence for the efficacy of the program as “very scarce”. A meta-analysis of studies evaluating SSTP published prior to submission of this paper was not cited. The results are inconsistent with previous evidence for SSTP, yet the authors provide scant interpretation for this inconsistency. Similarly, the unusually high dropout rate of 49% was not adequately explained. The claims that previous research has only been conducted by the developers, has not included children with intellectual disability, and has not used care-as-usual comparison groups, are inaccurate. This commentary explores these issues further in order to place the findings from the recent trial into context.