Clinical Trial of Emotion-Focused Skills Training for Parents
Improving Outcome for Children Through Treatment of Their Parents - Comparing Emotion-Focused Parent Skills Training With Emotion Coaching Parent Program for Children With Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms: a Randomized Controlled Trial
1 other identifier
interventional
220
1 country
1
Brief Summary
Children with externalizing and internalizing symptoms has been linked to poor emotional competence, problematic understanding and regulation of emotions. A number of recent studies demonstrates the importance of parents' active involvement in the child's recovery process and support the empirical relationship between parenting style and child symptoms. Emotional awareness and acceptance of painful emotional experience in parents leads to reduction in how these emotions are experienced in response to stressors in children. This makes the parent less vulnerable to rumination or suppression of negative emotional experience related to the child. In addition, it releases parents' emotional capacity to be mentally present and emotionally available for their child. Although neuro-affective principles from research have been incorporated in the therapeutic approaches for adults, there are currently no programs that target these mechanisms in working with children with mental health difficulties. Emotion Focused Skills Training (EFST) is an easily administrated, cost efficient treatment program specifically directed towards the parental role in promoting change in children. In this randomized controlled trial, we will compare experiential process oriented EFST with a psycho-educational version of EFST on parents of children aged 6-13 with externalizing or internalizing symptoms. Parents of 236 children will receive a two days course and 6 hours of individually delivered treatment within a 10 weeks period, either with the experiential version of EFST or the psycho-educational version. Feedback regarding outcome on externalizing and internalizing problems will be obtained from parents and teachers at 5 different periods: baseline, treatment completion and at 3, 6 and 9 months follow-up.
Trial Health
Trial Health Score
Automated assessment based on enrollment pace, timeline, and geographic reach
participants targeted
Target at P75+ for not_applicable
Started Oct 2018
Typical duration for not_applicable
1 active site
Health score is calculated from publicly available data and should be used for screening purposes only.
Trial Relationships
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Study Timeline
Key milestones and dates
Study Start
First participant enrolled
October 1, 2018
CompletedFirst Submitted
Initial submission to the registry
January 14, 2019
CompletedFirst Posted
Study publicly available on registry
January 16, 2019
CompletedPrimary Completion
Last participant's last visit for primary outcome
July 30, 2020
CompletedStudy Completion
Last participant's last visit for all outcomes
January 30, 2021
CompletedAugust 3, 2022
August 1, 2022
1.8 years
January 14, 2019
August 2, 2022
Conditions
Outcome Measures
Primary Outcomes (3)
Change in SDQ-P 4-17 - Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and impact supplement for the parents of 4-17 year olds All 5 subscales and total score will be used.
Pre, post (0 months after completed intervention), 3, 6 and 9 months follow up
Change in ASEBA Child Behavior Checklist for Ages 6-18 All eight subscales and total scores will be used.
Pre, post (0 months after completed intervention), 3, 6 and 9 months follow up
Change in ASEBA - Child Behavior Checklist - Teacher Report Form All eight subscales and total scores will be used.
Pre, post (0 months after completed intervention), 3, 6 and 9 months follow up
Secondary Outcomes (3)
Outcome Questionnaire 45, Version 2, for the parents
Pre, post (0 months after completed intervention), 3, 6 and 9 months follow up
Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale
Pre, post, 3 months, 6 months, 9 monthsPre, post (0 months after completed intervention), 3, 6 and 9 months follow up
Forms of Self-Criticising/Attacking & Self-Reassuring Scale All 3 subscales will be used: Inadequate self, Hated self, Reassured self.
Pre, post (0 months after completed intervention), 3, 6 and 9 months follow up
Other Outcomes (4)
Parents Beliefs About Children's Emotions questionnaire Full scale
Pre, post (0 months after completed intervention), 3, 6 and 9 months follow up
Parents Sense of Competence Scale Full scale
Pre, post (0 months after completed intervention), 3, 6 and 9 months follow up
Coping with Children's Negative Emotion Scale Full scale
Pre, post (0 months after completed intervention), 3, 6 and 9 months follow up
- +1 more other outcomes
Study Arms (2)
Experiential Condition
EXPERIMENTALThis group will receive an experiential version of the program Emotion-Focused Skills Training for Parents, meaning they will engage in tasks that are supposed to activate the parents emotional system, providing them with a deeper sense of understanding towards their child.
Psychoeducational version
ACTIVE COMPARATORThis group will receive a non-experiential, psychoeducational version of the program Emotion-Focused Skills Training for Parents, meaning they will not engage in tasks that are meant to activate the parents emotional system.
Interventions
The intervention consists of a 2-day work shop given in a group format, in addition to 6 hours of parent supervision within 6 weeks after the work shop.
The intervention consists of a 2-day work shop given in a group format, in addition to 6 hours of parent supervision within 6 weeks after the work shop.
Eligibility Criteria
You may qualify if:
- Parents of children between 6-13 with either internalizing problems, externalizing problems, or both.
- An overall final assessment of whether it is likely that the parents will be able to fully participate in the study.
- Parents who live with the child at least 50% of the time.
- Parents who agree that they need help and are motivated for the treatment.
- Parents and children who speak Norwegian
- Parents who have the time to participate in the intervention program.
- Parents who are willing to collaborate with the childs school and contact with the school teacher.
You may not qualify if:
- Parents: Serious or chronic mental health difficulties such as psychosis, bipolar disorder, organic disorder, ongoing substance abuse, do.
- documented sexual abuse, serious mental health problems, organic disorder and/or disability in the child.
Contact the study team to confirm eligibility.
Sponsors & Collaborators
- Institutt for Psykologisk Radgivninglead
- University of Oslocollaborator
- The Research Council of Norwaycollaborator
- University of Bergencollaborator
Study Sites (1)
Institutt for Psykologisk rådgivning
Bergen, 5012, Norway
Related Publications (1)
Ansar N, Nissen Lie HA, Stiegler JR. The effects of emotion-focused skills training on parental mental health, emotion regulation and self-efficacy: Mediating processes between parents and children. Psychother Res. 2024 Apr;34(4):518-537. doi: 10.1080/10503307.2023.2218539. Epub 2023 Jun 13.
PMID: 37311111DERIVED
Study Design
- Study Type
- interventional
- Phase
- not applicable
- Allocation
- RANDOMIZED
- Masking
- SINGLE
- Who Masked
- PARTICIPANT
- Purpose
- TREATMENT
- Intervention Model
- PARALLEL
- Sponsor Type
- OTHER
- Responsible Party
- SPONSOR
Study Record Dates
First Submitted
January 14, 2019
First Posted
January 16, 2019
Study Start
October 1, 2018
Primary Completion
July 30, 2020
Study Completion
January 30, 2021
Last Updated
August 3, 2022
Record last verified: 2022-08
Data Sharing
- IPD Sharing
- Will not share