None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
We aim to examine the feasibility of a new guided parent-delivered CBT-P (GPD-CBT-P) whose child is aged between 7 and 12 years of age in terms of recruitment through educational settings and retention rates. In addition, we will gather data how GPD-CBT-P performs against waitlist control for change over 18-weeks post-randomisation on self-report (parent and child) measures of perfectionism, stress, depressive symptoms, and body image disturbance. In addition, this will be the first occasion that academic outcomes (satisfaction and self-efficacy) will be examined in a randomised controlled trial design. This is a feasibility trial that will provide a plausible range of point estimates of the efficacy of GPD-CBT-P on standardised continuous symptom measures for our secondary aim. In this way, we can refine the treatment manual and contribute to the design. As a feasibility study we do not pose hypotheses but will examine our primary outcomes (number of enquiries, number recruited into the trial, number completing first assessment, number randomised, number retained in treatment, number of completed assessments at each timepoint, percentage of homework tasks completed between sessions, total hours of guidance used by each family), as well as the perceived treatment credibility, acceptability and effectiveness, and the between group effect sizes (95% confidence intervals) for our measures.
Interventions
Guided parent-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy for perfectionism (GPD-CBT-P) comprises of 6 sessions. Session 1 focuses on psychoeducation about the definition of perfectionism, exploring the difference between high standards and perfectionism, myths of the advantages of perfectionism and exploring reasons to change. The second session focuses on what keeps perfectionism going, examining typical unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviours that maintain perfectionism and how parental expectat
Guided parent-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy for perfectionism (GPD-CBT-P) comprises of 6 sessions. Session 1 focuses on psychoeducation about the definition of perfectionism, exploring the difference between high standards and perfectionism, myths of the advantages of perfectionism and exploring reasons to change. The second session focuses on what keeps perfectionism going, examining typical unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviours that maintain perfectionism and how parental expectations and criticism can contribute to this. The third session focuses on setting up behavioural experiments with the children, to test out the truth or otherwise of their perfectionistic predictions and development of alternative beliefs. The fourth session focuses on psychoeducation about self-criticism, identifying the critical voice, identifying the compassionate voice, and involves parents asking their child to generate as many self-compassionate interpretations as possible for another child in a challenging hypothetical situation. The fifth session focuses on behaviours that can reinforce perfectionism, such as procrastination and checking, using problem solving. The sixth session focuses on the relationship between self-worth and achievement; identifying various factors that impact self-worth and to develop a program to expand those areas that are not linked to achievement. The content of the modules is drawn from the book "Overcoming perfectionism: A self-help guide using cognitive behavioural techniques". The content will be co-designed with parents in the first three months of the research to ensure that the content is suitably modified for use by parents with their children and has age-appropriate material. This co-design process will consist of a one-hour online focus group meeting, with up to 10 parents, where outcome will be decided by majority opinion. Over 6 sessions, delivered per parent dyad, both parents (where possible) will be guided through the content of the modules and encouraged to apply the content to themselves, as well as to instruct their children in the content they are learning. The guidance will be offered by trainee psychologists under expert supervision. The approach is standardised yet can be flexibly delivered according to a families’ concerns, problems, and goals. Consistent with previous cost-effective online brief guided parent-delivered CBT for child anxiety, parents will be given a pdf of the intervention followed by six weekly online (remote) sessions with the trial guides, of up to 6 hours total contact. Each session will involve collaboratively setting an agenda for the session based on experience with the preceding week’s homework, current issues, and the module in focus. Participants will complete homework exercises to consolidate and practice the skills learnt during the session. To enable homework completion, worksheets will be prepared for the child with explanatory notes for the parents. Examples of homework include: completing a worksheet titled ‘Adam and Lucy’, which the child can complete with the parent to practise identifying perfectionism and how it is different to striving for high standards or excellence; completing the worksheet titled ‘Being Your Own Friend’, which the child can complete with the parent to practise using compassion for a fictional character, and then for themselves.
Sponsors
Flinders University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
7 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
The child is aged 7 to 12 years and the parents identify that their child has elevated perfectionism that causes problems to their psychosocial functioning. Questions will include: “Does your child set extremely high standards for themself? Do they chase these standards even if it leads to bad effects e.g., stress, low moods, anxiety, self-criticism, procrastination? Do they often feel disappointed after completing a task because they feel they could have done better?”. Our previous work has shown self-identification of perfectionism results in 72% of participants scoring at least one standard deviation above published norms on the Frost Concern over Mistakes subscale.
Exclusion criteria
Receiving other psychological services for perfectionism while participating in the trial.
Outcome results
None listed