Tuning in to Kids® for Parents of Preschool-aged Children in Portugal

NCT07350083 | Recruiting

• 3 other identifiers: TIK-PT/FCG/335706FCG/Growing Minds/335706UID/05380/2025
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 152
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Early parent-child interactions, namely how parents respond to their children's emotions (i.e., emotion socialization parenting practices \[ESPP\]), may play a critical role in how children develop emotion regulation abilities. When parents rely on unsupportive ESPP, this can result in regulatory problems, which are a transdiagnostic symptom of MH problems, being a major cause of its etiology. Emotion-focused parenting programs, such as Tuning in to Kids® (TIK), promote parents' emotion coaching skills, enabling children to understand and regulate their emotions in more effective ways, while also supporting parents in managing their own emotions. This study aims to examine the feasibility, acceptability, implementation fidelity and efficacy of the TIK program among parents of preschool-aged children in Portugal. TIK is a 6-week group, face-to-face program grounded in the principles of emotion coaching, among other theoretical backgrounds such as Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation Theories. This trial is a parallel two-arm randomized clinical trial. Participants will be parents/legal guardians (\> 18 years old) with at least one child between 3 and 6 years old and with proficiency in portuguese. At least 152 parents/legal guardians will be recruited with the support of several community partners. Interested parents will be contacted by telephone to confirm their eligibility. Participants will be informed about their eligibility during the intake interview, followed by a full explanation of the clinical trial procedures. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group (TIK) or a waitlist control group, with the latter receiving the intervention after the follow-up assessment. The intervention consists of six weekly in-person group sessions plus one follow-up session, each lasting approximately 2 hours. Participants in both groups will complete questionnaires at three time points - baseline, post-intervention, and 2-month follow-up - covering different dimensions of children (e.g., children's emotional and developmental difficulties) and parental (e.g., parenting stress) psychological functioning, and parenting (e.g., ESPP).

Conditions

Parents' Beliefs About and Reactions to Children's Emotions; Parental Emotion Socialization; Parental Emotion Regulation

Keywords

Tuning in to Kids®; parental emotion socialization; randomized controlled trial; preschool; children emotional and behavioral difficulties

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Changes from baseline in parents' beliefs about children's emotions

  Measured with the Parents' Beliefs About Children's Emotions Questionnaire (PBACE). The PBACE is a 33-item self-report questionnaire, with items rated on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). The present study will use the following subscales: Value of Anger, Manipulation, Control, and Autonomy. Subscale scores will be calculated by averaging item responses, with higher scores indicating stronger endorsement of the corresponding belief in that category.

  Baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 2 months follow-up

• Changes from baseline in parents' reactions to children's emotions

  Measured with the Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES). The CCNES is a parent-report measure assessing how parents respond to children's negative emotions across 12 hypothetical scenarios, with responses rated on a 7-point Likert scale from 1 (very unlikely) to 7 (very likely). The CCNES comprises seven subscales: Emotion-Focused, Problem-Focused, Expressive Encouragement, Minimizing, Punitive, Distress, and Ignoring reactions. Items from the first three subscales are summed to create a composite measure of emotion coaching, whereas items from the remaining four subscales are summed to assess emotion dismissing responses. For each scale, total scores are calculated by averaging item responses, with higher scores indicating greater endorsement of the corresponding practice.

  Baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 2 months follow-up

• Changes from baseline in parents' emotion regulation (parenting-specific)

  Measured with the Interpersonal Mindfulness in Parenting Scale (IM-P). The IM-P is a 29-item self-report instrument rated on a 5-point Likert scale, from 1 (never true) to 5 (always true). The Self-Regulation in Parenting will be assessed as primary outcome. Subscale scores will be calculated by summing item responses. Higher scores on the Self-Regulation in Parenting subscale indicate greater ability to regulate emotions and behaviors within the parenting context.

  Baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 2 months follow-up

• Changes from baseline in parents' emotional regulation (general)

  Measured with the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form (DERS-SF). The DERS-SF is a self-report measure, including 18 items, rated on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). A total score is obtained by averaging all items, with higher scores indicating greater difficulties. In line with the recommendations of the Portuguese authors, items 1, 4 and 6 will be excluded from the analyses.

  Baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 2 month follow-up

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Changes from baseline in children's behavioral and emotional difficulties

  Baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 2 month follow-up

• Changes from baseline in children' emotional regulation

  Baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 2 month follow-up

• Changes from baseline in parenting stress

  Baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 2 month follow-up

• Changes from baseline in depressive symptoms

  Baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 2 month follow-up

• Changes from baseline in parenting self-efficacy

  Baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 2 month follow-up

Other Outcomes (3)

• Acceptability of the intervention

  Immediately post-intervention

• Feasibility of the intervention

  Immediately post-intervention

• Implementation fidelity of the intervention

  During the intervention (at the end of each session).

Study Arms (2)

Tuning in to Kids® intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will attend a 6-week, in-person group program structured around emotion coaching principles (Tuning in to Kids®).

Behavioral: Tuning in to Kids®

Waiting list group

OTHER

Participants will be offered and receive TIK after the conclusion of the final follow-up assessment.

Behavioral: Tuning in to Kids®

Interventions

Tuning in to Kids® BEHAVIORAL

Tuning in to Kids® (TIK) is a manualized program delivered by trained facilitators (6 weekly - 2h - group sessions) and aimed to promote parents' emotion socialization practices that are supportive of the child's expression of emotion (emotion coaching; e.g., comforting, teaching constructive means of coping), while reducing unsupportive ESPP (emotion dismissing; e.g., punishing or minimizing). An additional booster session may be held after two months of program's conclusion. TIK includes strategies informed by emotion coaching principles, including psychoeducation, roleplays, video materials, mindfulness-based exercises, and group discussions. By addressing a core mechanism leading to different emotional and behavioral childhood disorders (i.e. difficulties in emotion regulation), TIK is susceptible to promoting children's long-term full potential and parental mental health outcomes.

Tuning in to Kids® intervention; Waiting list group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 99 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Parents/legal guardians:
• with at least one child aged between 3 and 6 years old (inclusive) who lives with the parent/legal guardian,
• with at least 18 years old,
• who can read, understand, and speak Portuguese
• who live in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area or Lisbon District. When applicable, both parents will be allowed to participate.

You may not qualify if:

• parents' poor Portuguese language skills
• parents' being currently enrolled in another structured parenting program
• if the target child is already attending elementary school at the time of recruitment
• if the target child has a diagnosis of a severe Communication and/or Developmental Disorder, or
• if the target child is under a child protection measure that implies that the child does not live with their parents (e.g., if the child is in foster care).
• Only participants that give informed consent to participate in the study will be included and randomized to one of the study conditions (TIK vs. waiting list group).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• MSV - Crescer Como Família: collaborator
• Unidade Local de Saúde Amadora-Sintra: collaborator
• Comissão Nacional de Promoção dos Direitos e Proteção das Crianças e Jovens: collaborator
• FUNDAÇAO CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN: collaborator
• Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia: collaborator
• Lusofona University: lead
• Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa: collaborator
• Aventura Social: collaborator
• NucliSol Jean Piaget: collaborator
• Pressley Ridge: collaborator
• Associação Nacional de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento, Investigação e Comunidade: collaborator
• Instituto Belong - Desenvolvimento e Saúde: collaborator
• Associação de Aldeias de Crianças SOS: collaborator
• Associação Passo a Passo: collaborator
• CPCJ da Amadora: collaborator
• CPCJ de Lisboa Ocidental: collaborator
• Instituto de Apoio à Criança: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

School of Psychology and Life Sciences, Lusófona University

Lisbon, 1749-024, Portugal

RECRUITING

Central Study Contacts

Stephanie Alves

CONTACT

+351 21 751 5500; stephanie.alves@ulusofona.pt

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: December 23, 2025
• First Posted: January 20, 2026
• Study Start: December 2, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): September 30, 2027
• Last Updated: January 20, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-01

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

PT (1)