None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
An acquired brain injury (or ABI) refers to an injury to the brain that has occurred after birth. Common causes of traumatic brain injury (the most common subtype of ABI) are motor vehicle accidents, falls, sporting injuries, or assaults. Other causes of brain injury include stroke, tumor, infection, or hypoxia. In children, brain injury can cause existing skills and abilities to be lost at least temporarily, and can also cause delays in the development of new skills. Some children recover very well, however it is quite common for children to experience some form of behavioural, social, academic, physical, emotional or developmental problems. It is recognised that acquired brain injury can impact on the entire family system. Not only do parents have to manage the stress associated with the difficulties that their child is experiencing, they are also often dealing with many emotions related to the ABI, attending many appointments for their child, and dealing with schools and various other agencies. This study aims to assess the efficacy of a behavioural family intervention, plus an ACT-based intervention addressing the emotional costs of ABI, tailored specifically for parents of children with ABI, with an emphasis on the difficulties that might be unique to these families. It is predicted that this intervention will lead to decreases in child problem behaviour and emotional difficulties, improvements in parenting style, and improvements in parental adjustment.
Interventions
There will be one treatment group in this study. Participants will receive a behavioural family intervention which aims to teach parents ways to manage children's behavioural and emotional difficulties, and to teach them new skills, while at the same time aiming to improve parents' confidence and parenting skills, and reduce stress. This program will be conducted as a group program with 5-10 families per group. 6 group sessions running for 2 hours each will be offered, with an additional 3 or 4
There will be one treatment group in this study. Participants will receive a behavioural family intervention which aims to teach parents ways to manage children's behavioural and emotional difficulties, and to teach them new skills, while at the same time aiming to improve parents' confidence and parenting skills, and reduce stress. This program will be conducted as a group program with 5-10 families per group. 6 group sessions running for 2 hours each will be offered, with an additional 3 or 4 telephone consults each running for approximately 30 minutes. Participants will also receive an adjunct intervention targetting parental stress and coping prior to receiving the behavioural family intervention. This program will consist of 2 group sessions running for 2 hours each, and will be based in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The goal of ACT is to increase psychological flexibility, or the ability to persist or change in the service of chosen life values. The group program will address the following ACT processes: acceptance of negative cognitions and emotions, cognitive defusion, mindfulness or present moment awareness, values, and committed action. The total length of the intervention will be 10 weeks. All programs will be conducted by registered provisionally registered psychologists from the University of Queensland.
Sponsors
Assoc Prof Kate Sofronoff
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Parents will be able to participate in the study if they meet the following criteria: -their child is aged between 2 and 12 -their child has a diagnosis of an acquired brain injury -the injury occured at least 3 months prior to commencement of the intervention - the child is no longer acutely unwell -their child is displaying some behavioural, emotional, or developmental difficulties (based on parent self-report). - Parents speak adequate English to participate in the group program. Grandparents who are the primary carers for children meeting the above criteria will also be eligible to participate.
Exclusion criteria
- child is participating in a concurrent research project targetting child behavioural or emotional difficulties (eg. anger management) - child is not experiencing any ongoing behavioural, emotional, or developmental difficulties following the brain injury -child is in the custody of the Department of Child Safety
Outcome results
None listed