Effectiveness of Emotion Focused Skills Training (EFST)

NCT04885036 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: SorlandetHF Zahl-Olsen
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 72
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Comparing the effectivity of an EFST parent supervision intervention against Treatment As Usual in an outpatient specialist health care clinics Family unit.

Conditions

Mental Health Issue

Keywords

Emotion focused skills training; Treatment outcome; Effectiveness; Mental health

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Change in childrens symptoms and diagnosis

  To establish and measure change in childrens symptoms and diagnosis of mental distress, our main outcome measure will be the semi-structured diagnostic interview Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia, present and lifetime version (Kiddie-SADS-PL), DSM-IV version (Kaufman, 1997). the Kiddie-sads will be completed at randomization and then repeated after 3 months to investigate the presence of diagnosis. A diagnosis will be rated as present or not present, with the threshold for presence being defined as a score of at least 3 within each diagnosis.

  T0=At randomization, T1= 3 months after T0

• Change in reported symptoms and distress

  To measure change in childrens symptoms of mental distress, the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire, SDQ (Goodman et al., 2000) will be used. The child will be filling it out him/herself electronically (from 11 yeas of age), as well as the parents and teacher. The SDQ consists of 25 items describing positive and negative attributes of children and adolescents that can be allocated to 5 subscales. Each item has to be scored on a 3-point scale with 0 = 'not true', 1 = 'somewhat true', and 2 = 'certainly true'. A total difficulties score will also be calculated(range 0-40).Lower scores indicates better outcome.

  T0 = At randomization, T1 = 3 months after T0, T2 = 6 months after T0, T3 = 12 months after T0

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Change in reported Health-Related Quality of Life

  T0 = At randomization, T1 = 3 months after T0, T2 = 6 months after T0, T3 = 12 months after T0

• Changes in parents emotional style

  T0 = At randomization, T1 = 3 months after T0, T2 = 6 months after T0, T3 = 12 months after T0

• Changes in parents emotion regulation

  T0 = At randomization, T1 = 3 months after T0, T2 = 6 months after T0, T3 = 12 months after T0

• Change in parents symptoms mental distress

  T0 = At randomization, T1 = 3 months after

• Change in the quality of parents relationship with child

  T0 = At randomization, T1 = 3 months after T0, T2 = 6 months after T0, T3 = 12 months after T0

Study Arms (2)

Treatment As Usual

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

This group will receive treatment as usual within the family unit

Behavioral: Treatment As Usual

EFST intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

This group will receive an EFST stand alone treatment consisting of a two days EFST course and 6 individual parental guidance sessions

Behavioral: EFST intervention

Interventions

EFST intervention BEHAVIORAL

EFST extended intervention is a stand-alone treatment that consist of a two days EFST group course followed by six weekly individual sessions of parental guidance by a licensed EFST therapist. The treatment is given indirectly to the child through work with the parent, thus it might remove or diminish the pressure on the children that suffer from mental health problems to solve their disorder themselves. In this condition a total of 19 hours of EFST treatment is provided.

EFST intervention

Treatment As Usual BEHAVIORAL

In the TAU condition, the families will receive treatment as usual that does not include EFST treatment. Recent research indicates that this is therapy of high quality carried out by highly qualified staff (Tilden et al., 2020; Zahl-Olsen et al., 2020).The therapists are educated psychologists, psychiatrist and family therapists. The TAU intends to be the best treatment for the child/ family based on the type of symptoms presented and requests from the patient and his/her family. We will measure the intensity and type of therapy given in this condition by information from the therapists and investigate that it did not include the main elements of EFST treatment.

Treatment As Usual

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 6 Years - 18 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Children with a wide range of diagnosis will be included.
• Children in the age group from 6-18 years in the mental health clinic will be invited to participate.
• It is preferred that both parents participate in the EFST treatment.

You may not qualify if:

• parents need to live with the child at least 50% of the time (if separated or divorced)
• Parents need to speak Norwegian to a degree that they can comprehend the psychoeducation and participate in the sessions without an interpreter.
• parents with ongoing substance abuse or mental states that make participation too difficult, e.g., psychosis, will be excluded.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Sorlandet Hospital HF: lead
• South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Sørlandet Hospital HF

Kristiansand, Agder, 4600, Norway

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Severinsen L, Stiegler JR, Nissen-Lie HA, Shahar B, Zahl-Olsen R. Effectiveness of emotion focused skills training for parents: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial in specialist mental health care. BMC Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 7;22(1):453. doi: 10.1186/s12888-022-04084-x.

  PMID: 35799120 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Psychological Well-Being

Interventions

Therapeutics

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Personal Satisfaction; Behavior

Study Officials

• Rune H Zahl-Olsen, Ph.D

  Senior researcher at Sørlandet Hospital HF

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER GOV
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: A Randomized Clinical Trial comparing Emotion-focused skills training (EFST) up against treatment as usual in an outpatient specialist mental health clinics family team.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 24, 2021
• First Posted: May 13, 2021
• Study Start: December 8, 2021
• Primary Completion: April 24, 2024
• Study Completion: December 22, 2024
• Last Updated: June 5, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

NO (1)