Promoting Children's Mental Health: The Effects of a Parenting Program

NCT03030352 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: MOP-130576
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 315
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The objectives of the How-to parenting program are 1) to improve optimal parenting style, and 2) to foster children mental health (i.e. decrease in internalized and externalized problems, and well-being). The investigators expect that parents assigned to experimental groups will show improvements in parenting over time (i.e improvements in parental affiliation, parental structure and parental attitude toward autonomy), whereas parents in control groups will not show such improvements (i.e., stable or declining parenting quality). The investigators also expect children of parents in experimental groups to experience improvements in child mental health (i.e., fewer internalized and externalized psychological problems and increased well-being), whereas children whose parents are on the wait list will not show improvements over time (i.e., stable or deteriorating mental health and well-being).

Conditions

Child Development

Keywords

Child Mental Health; Parenting; Autonomy Support; How-to Parenting Program; Randomized Controlled Trial; Primary Prevention; Parental Mental Health; Child Well-Being

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (5)

• Change in parenting style assessed by parents

  Parenting Style will be assessed by a self-administered questionnaire with 3 subscales. Parental Bonding Scale, Parenting Structure Scale, and Parental Autonomy Support scale.

  1 week post-intervention, 6 months and 1 year follow-up

• Change in children's mental health problems at home

  Parents will rate their child's I- and E- psychological problems with a questionnaire composed with the Child Behavior Checklist CBCL.

  1 week post-intervention, 6 months and 1 year follow-up

• Change in children's mental health problems at school

  Teachers are asked to evaluate children's classroom and social problems with the Teacher-Child Rating Scale; TCRS. The problem subscales of the TCRS assess I- (shy-anxious) and E- (acting-out) problems.

  1 week post-intervention, 6 months and 1 year follow-up

• Change in children's competencies at school

  Teachers will complete the competencies subscales of the TCRS, which evaluate children' socio-emotional competencies (i.e., frustration tolerance, task orientation and social skills).

  1 week post-intervention, 6 months and 1 year follow-up

• Change in children's well-being

  Children will assess their own well-being with a self-administered questionnaire with 3 positive indicators; self-esteem, life satisfaction and positive affect.

  1 week post-intervention, 6 months and 1 year follow-up

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Change in parenting style assessed by children

  1 week post-intervention, 6 months and 1 year follow-up

• Change in parent's mental health problems

  1 week post-intervention, 6 months and 1 year follow-up

• Change in parent's well-being

  1 week post-intervention, 6 months and 1 year follow-up

• Change in perceived parental competencies

  1 week post-intervention, 6 months and 1 year follow-up

• Change in parental guilt

  1 week post-intervention, 6 months and 1 year follow-up

Study Arms (2)

How-to Parenting Program

EXPERIMENTAL

The How-to Parenting Program consists of seven 2 ½-hour weekly sessions. It is a manual-based program in which participants have their own exercise booklet containing parenting skills and exercises. Groups are led by 2 group leaders and formed of 6 to 10 parents.

Behavioral: How-to Parenting Program

Wait-list Control Group

NO INTERVENTION

Parents assigned to the wait-list control group will receive no intervention for the duration of the trial. The How-to Parenting Program will be delivered to them the following year. This delayed participation is ethically sound, as the program does not target at-risk families.

Interventions

How-to Parenting Program BEHAVIORAL

The How-to Parenting Program addresses all three key dimensions of optimal parenting; autonomy support, affiliation and structure. With weekly workshops, the How-to-Parenting Program optimizes learning by (1) linking group content with parents' needs, (2) facilitating awareness with perspective taking activities, (3) offering concrete parenting skills, (4) modeling the skills and providing practice in a predictable and non-judgmental environment, (5) emphasizing the importance of implementing these skills at home for long term behavioral change, and (6) offering tools (i.e., exercise booklet, skill summary) that facilitate information retention.

Also known as: How to talk so kids will listen & listen so kids will talk

How-to Parenting Program

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Parents must have a child (5-12 years old) attending a participating grade school

You may not qualify if:

• Inability to communicate in the language in which the study is conducted (i.e., French)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Université de Montréal: lead
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

University of Montreal

Montreal, Quebec, H3T 1J4, Canada

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Joussemet M, Mageau GA, Larose MP, Briand M, Vitaro F. How to talk so kids will listen & listen so kids will talk: a randomized controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of the how-to parenting program on children's mental health compared to a wait-list control group. BMC Pediatr. 2018 Aug 2;18(1):257. doi: 10.1186/s12887-018-1227-3.

  PMID: 30071843 DERIVED

Study Officials

• Mireille Joussemet, Ph.D.

  Université de Montréal

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

• Geneviève Mageau, Ph.D.

  Université de Montréal

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 9, 2016
• First Posted: January 25, 2017
• Study Start: February 1, 2014
• Primary Completion: April 28, 2017
• Study Completion: June 15, 2018
• Last Updated: October 15, 2018

Record last verified: 2018-10

Locations

CA (1)