None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Parental psychopathology is a commonly accepted risk factor in the development of childhood disorders. The heritability of internalizing disorders, in particular, has been well established in family aggregation studies of both the offspring of anxious parents as well as the parents of anxious offspring (for a review see Drake & Ginsburg, 2012). In contrast to the abundance of studies exploring parental and child psychopathology, the area of parental and child resilience is heavily under-explored. With resilience increasingly becoming recognised as a lifelong process, interventions targeting adult populations provide the potential for benefiting both the individuals completing the program as well as their families. The proposed study aims to explore whether a conjunctive parent resilience intervention improves outcomes for children completing the FRIENDS program.
Interventions
The FRIENDS programs (Fun FRIENDS, FRIENDS for Life, My Youth FRIENDS, Adult Resilience; Barrett, 2012) will be utilised. The intensive format will be the same content as the standard session content simply presented more frequently over 2 weeks (as opposed to 10 weeks), whereby each session will be completed daily Mon-Fri rather than weekly. The parent resilience format will provide the Adult Resilience to parents of children completing the FF, FFL or MYF programs. Allocation to the groups of F
The FRIENDS programs (Fun FRIENDS, FRIENDS for Life, My Youth FRIENDS, Adult Resilience; Barrett, 2012) will be utilised. The intensive format will be the same content as the standard session content simply presented more frequently over 2 weeks (as opposed to 10 weeks), whereby each session will be completed daily Mon-Fri rather than weekly. The parent resilience format will provide the Adult Resilience to parents of children completing the FF, FFL or MYF programs. Allocation to the groups of Fun FRIENDS, FRIENDS for Life or My Youth FRIENDS is determined by age, groups are 4-7 y/o, 8-11 y/o and 12-15 y/o respectively. The FRIENDS programs are robustly supported anxiety treatment programs with over 50 published articles supporting their use in children and adolescents. Strategies are based on a cognitive behavioural framework and delivered in a group clinical setting. The frequency of sessions is weekly over 10 weeks for the standard format and daily (Mon-Fri) over 2 weeks for the intensive group. Both formats will be a 90-minute session conducted either by a registered psychologist or clinical psychologist. The FRIENDS programs (including all 3 children and the adult program) incorporate physiological, cognitive, and behavioral strategies to assist children and adolescents in coping with stress and worry. The behavioral component includes exposure, relaxation training, assertiveness training, coping and problem solving plans, and conflict resolution. The cognitive component teaches children and adolescents to recognize their feelings and thoughts and the link between them. It also teaches them to identify faulty cognitions and incompatible self-statements, and to elaborate alternative interpretations of difficult situations. Through the program, protective factors such as self-esteem, self-concept, coping skills, hope, and social support are enhanced. Overall there will be three modes/arms of intervention: Arm 1: FRIENDS program only (see active comparison below) Arm 2: Standard FRIENDS program and conjunctive adult resilience component (over 10 weeks) Arm 3: Intensive FRIENDS program and conjunctive adult resilience component (over 2 weeks)
Sponsors
Friends Programs International
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
4 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
All clients attending the community clinic for group treatment will be invited to complete the research. There will be no inclusion criteria regarding levels of symptomology or a determined diagnosis. Clients may attend the clinic following GP referral, school referral or self-referral. The study intends to represent a real-world clinic to increase clinical applicability rather than a restricted university-clinic sample.
Exclusion criteria
Participants must complete at least 50% of the intervention. Participants who are unlikely to benefit from group treatment or those likely to disrupt the treatment of others will be excluded (and offered individual psychological services). Furthermore, those at risk of harming themselves or others will be offered individual services.
Outcome results
None listed