My Emotions Community Trial: A waitlist randomized controlled trial of a brief clinic-based parent-child emotions intervention program for children aged 5-13 years

The My Emotions intervention involves three 50-minute face-to-face sessions at 2 week intervals delivered by a clinician (e.g., Paediatrician or Psychologist or Provisional Psychologist). The first session will focus on assessing specific emotions problems that the child is experiencing and setting goals in relation to these problems. Families will be provided with psychoeducation, which involves information about the role of emotions, core emotions, modulation of emotions, how emotions mix together, and communication about emotions. Normal emotions refer to the typical range of feelings and reactions that people commonly experience in response to various situations and stimuli. These emotions can include happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and more. They are considered normal because they are part of the human experience and serve important functions in our lives, such as helping us navigate relationships, make decisions, and respond to threats or opportunities. Normal emotions may vary in intensity and duration depending on individual differences, cultural norms, and the specific context of a situation. Overall, they contribute to our psychological well-being and are essential for our emotional health. Emotional regulation refers to the ability to effectively manage and modulate one's own emotions in response to internal and external stimuli. It involves being aware of your emotions, understanding what triggers them, and employing strategies to regulate their intensity and duration. Emotional regulation is crucial for maintaining emotional stability, navigating social interactions, and making sound decisions. Families are also provided with a tailored plan during the first session that is specific to the emotions diagnosis of the child, and which includes their agreed upon goals and tailored emotions management techniques. Examples of the emotions management techniques that may be individually tailored to participants include Emotional Problem Solving to treat emotional responses to triggering events, Managing Anxiety or Separation Anxiety, Managing Anger, and Coping and Calming to build emotional regulation skills. Families will be given an optional emotions diary and asked to record emotions for the two weeks following the first face-to-face session, on a daily basis. Clinicians will keep a study consultation form of the session to document precipitating, predisposing, and perpetuating factors impacting the child’s emotions problems, which includes home environment, medications and co-morbid psychological disorders. The second session is held two weeks later and will be used to reinforce strategies, monitor emotions (by reviewing an emotions diary), and to troubleshoot any difficulties that the family may be experiencing. This will involve discussing the use of the strategies recommended in the first session. This will involving reviewing the optional emotions diary (if completed over the preceding period) and discussing the use of the strategies recommended in the first session. These details, alongside any new strategies recommended and other relevant clinical information will be recorded. The final session (two weeks later) offers an additional opportunity to provide support and trouble shoot any issues. The clinicians will attend an initial 2 hour training session on the intervention prior to commencing sessions and participate in fortnightly group supervision sessions. The supervision will involve case reflection, training and simulation of intervention components, clinical governance of case work.