None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This project aims to support the mental health of children aged 7–12 by helping them manage perfectionism. High perfectionism in childhood is linked to anxiety, depression, eating issues, and school-related stress. Teaching children healthier thinking habits early can improve their wellbeing now and protect their mental health in the future. Growing Strong Minds is a program designed to reduce perfectionism in children. It is delivered in a new way: instead of being run by teachers or clinicians, parents learn how to guide their children through the program at home. This approach increases access to support and helps parents model positive behaviours in everyday life. Our pilot study, supported by a Channel 7 grant, showed promising early results. In this project, we will refine the program based on our pilot findings and test the updated version in a larger study. Families will be randomly assigned either to the intervention or to a control group, where parents receive general information about perfectionism. All families will complete online surveys. Parents in the intervention group will join five online guidance sessions, and both parents and children will complete home activities to practise new skills. We expect that children who take part in Growing Strong Minds will show better mental health and academic outcomes compared with the control group, and that the updated program will have higher completion rates than our pilot.
Interventions
For this project, we will revise a cognitive behaviour therapy intervention for perfectionism in youth aged 7-12, delivered by parents with guidance, which showed promising results in a completed pilot study (ACTRN12623000396628). The intervention is called Growing Strong Minds (GSM). It is being revised with the aim of enhancing effectiveness while increasing acceptability.
In the pilot study, 60% of parents completed all 6 modules, indicating parental time constraints interfered with completi
For this project, we will revise a cognitive behaviour therapy intervention for perfectionism in youth aged 7-12, delivered by parents with guidance, which showed promising results in a completed pilot study (ACTRN12623000396628). The intervention is called Growing Strong Minds (GSM). It is being revised with the aim of enhancing effectiveness while increasing acceptability. In the pilot study, 60% of parents completed all 6 modules, indicating parental time constraints interfered with completion and that only one module a fortnight was practical, very young children found some of the concepts difficult, and children wanted less reading. We will therefore (1) reduce the modules to 5, consistent with evidence that between 4-6 sessions is a sufficient dose, (2) simplify materials to make them more suited to younger children, and (3) modify the children's part of the intervention in a way that utilises gamification (e.g., use of virtual badges and rewards). Each of the modules will have three components: (1) psychoeducation for parents, which they will read independently in a PDF document, (2) homework tasks for parents to do with children spread over a 2-week period (e.g., completing a behaviour experiment testing a perfectionistic belief, practising self-compassion together), (3) a child workbook (delivered online, via Qualtrics survey) with one "chapter" (i.e., survey) associated with each module. The modules will include (1) Learning about perfectionism, (2) Experimenting with perfectionism, (3) Self-compassion, not self-criticism, (4) Problem solving in the face of avoidance and procrastination, (5) Expanding self-worth. The pilot version of the modules is being revised for this new trial, and access to these pilot modules is not provided here to ensure that they are not accessed by participants to this new trial, which could cause cross-over effects. A guide will meet with the parent or parents (one or more may attend guidance sessions) via Microsoft Teams or over the phone (based on parental preference) fortnightly on 5 occasions for up to 30 minutes per occasion to facilitate understanding and encourage problem-solving. Children will not be present during these sessions. To ensure fidelity to the program, the guide will follow a standardised manual. Adherence to the intervention will be measured as follows: (1) child adherence will be measured by percentage of survey completion and the number of free text exercises responded to when completing their workbooks via Qualtrics survey; and (2) parental adherence will be measured by number of guidance sessions attended.
Sponsors
Flinders University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
7 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Parent participants should be parents who are residing in Australia, fluent in English, and identify that their child (aged 7–12) has perfectionism impacting their psychosocial functioning; for example, “Does your child set extremely high standards for themselves?” and “Do they pursue these standards even if it causes stress or self-criticism?”. Child participants should be aged 7-12, fluent in English, and identified by their parent as having perfectionism impacting their psychosocial functioning.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria for child participants are organic brain damage, complex trauma history or recurrent self-injury requiring specialist services, or current suicidality that warrants immediate clinical attention and constitutes a current risk of harm to the individual. There are no exclusion criteria for parent participants.
Outcome results
None listed