None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The goals of this research project are to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of an attachment-based and trauma-informed parent program for kinship and foster carers and children in their care. The program aims to promote carers' understanding of and sensitive responding to their child's behaviour and emotions, and, in turn, strengthen the carer-child relationship and promote children's behavioural and emotional wellbeing.
Interventions
This study aims to evaluate the implementation and preliminary effectiveness of a modified version of the Connect parent program (see Moretti, Pasalich, & O’Donnell [2018], Handbook of Attachment-Based Interventions, for a review) for children in kinship and foster care. The version of the Connect program trialled in this study has been tailored to the specific needs of alternative/kin carers and children in home-based care. The intervention is trauma-informed and incorporates key principles fro
This study aims to evaluate the implementation and preliminary effectiveness of a modified version of the Connect parent program (see Moretti, Pasalich, & O’Donnell [2018], Handbook of Attachment-Based Interventions, for a review) for children in kinship and foster care. The version of the Connect program trialled in this study has been tailored to the specific needs of alternative/kin carers and children in home-based care. The intervention is trauma-informed and incorporates key principles from attachment theory. These intervention features are critical to promoting the wellbeing and resilience of children in home-based care who have histories of trauma and disrupted attachment relationships. The Connect parent program will be implemented by practitioners (including psychologists, counsellors and social workers) in child welfare and out-of-home-care services, who will be trained in the manualised intervention and provided with ongoing consultation and feedback. Two practitioners will co-facilitate each parenting group of 8-10 kinship or foster carers. Groups will meet weekly for 1.5 hours over 9 weeks at a local community centre. Each Connect session introduces an attachment principle that relates to child development, trauma and home-based care, and captures a key aspect of the caregiver-child relationship and common parenting challenges (e.g., empathy, conflict, growth and change). Experiential activities, including role-plays and reflection exercises, are used to illustrate each principle and build parenting knowledge and skills to promote secure attachment. Practitioners’ adherence to the intervention protocol will be assessed via direct observations of the leaders delivering the program using a sample of video recordings.
Sponsors
The Australian National University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
8 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Children will be eligible to participate in the study if they are aged 8-16 years and have resided in their current home-based care placement for at least four weeks. Caregivers will be eligible to participate if they are currently supporting a child in a kinship or foster care placement.
Exclusion criteria
Families will be excluded from participating in the study based on child and/or kinship/foster carer characteristics. Exclusion criteria concerning children includes: currently in a crisis/emergency situation, severe mental illness (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder), significant physical health care needs, severe developmental disability, and/or severe intellectual disability. Families will also be excluded if carers have a severe mental illness or substance use problem, and are unable to speak sufficiently fluent English and/or have limited comprehension of English.
Outcome results
None listed