Child Mental Disorder, Parent-Child Relations, Parenting
Conditions
Keywords
Non-offending caregiver, Child trauma
Brief summary
In this study, the investigators will conduct a proof-of-concept pilot trial of delivering the Project Support Positive Parenting Module (Project Support) to n = 30 families waiting for trauma-focused services. Investigators hypothesize that Project Support will be feasible and acceptable as evidenced by benchmarks for recruitment, retention at post assessment, engagement, fidelity, and program satisfaction. Investigators will also explore trends on caregiver emotional support, parenting self-efficacy, and child mental health symptoms.
Detailed description
Over two-thirds of children experience traumatic events such as child maltreatment, violence, or sudden or violent loss. Many of these children sustain significant emotional and developmental difficulties including trauma symptoms, aggression, and suicidality. Emotional support from a caregiver is theorized to buffer against the effects of trauma; however, many caregivers lack the self-efficacy and skills to effectively support their child, or struggle to apply these skills during the stressful time following trauma. Unfortunately, programs designed for caregivers following child trauma are scarce. Existing interventions are lengthy (lasting 8-20 sessions) and result in families placed on long waitlists. This proposal asserts the adverse effects of child trauma can be interrupted though a brief intervention (the Project Support Positive Parenting Module) that enhances supportive parenting - delivered via telehealth to families on waitlists for trauma-focused services. In this study, Investigators will conduct a proof-of-concept pilot trial with n = 30 families waiting for trauma-focused services. Investigators hypothesize that Project Support will be feasible and acceptable as evidenced by benchmarks for recruitment, retention at post assessment, engagement, fidelity, and program satisfaction. Investigators will also explore trends on caregiver emotional support, parenting self-efficacy, and child mental health symptoms. Long-term, this research will generate an effective intervention that addresses the needs of families affected by trauma, which can be scaled up to address other public health epidemics that impede supportive parenting and child development.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALProject Support
Caregivers will receive up to four, 60- to 90-minute sessions focused on teaching two parenting skills - attentive listening and comforting. Attentive listening involves providing accurate and timely responses to show interest and keep the child engaged until they are ready to end the conversation. Comforting involves using the same attentive listening skills when the child is upset or distressed. Effective mastery of the listening and comforting skills also requires caregivers to withhold any non-listening or non-comforting responses (e.g., interruptions, criticisms). The program is individually tailored such that caregivers with stronger skills could complete the program in less time (i.e., fewer sessions). Service providers educate caregivers about the skills, then engage in an iterative process of modeling the skills, engaging the caregivers in behavioral practice, and providing tailored, supportive feedback to help caregivers gain mastery.
Sponsors
Medical University of South Carolina
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
5 Years to 12 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Family is seeking trauma-focused services for their child as measured by their placement on the waitlist for services at the National Crime Victims Center; * Child is between 5 - 12 years old; * Caregiver agreed to be contacted for volunteer research opportunities; * Caregiver and child can communicate in either English or Spanish; * Child has been living with caregiver for at the last 6 months or longer; * Family is able to participate in services delivered via telehealth.
Exclusion criteria
* Child or caregiver has a diagnosis that would impair their ability to participate in or benefit from services (e.g., traumatic brain injury, developmental disability, psychosis); * Child is in Foster Care or Department of Social Services custody; * The caregiver is unwilling or unable to give informed consent and/or the child is unwilling and unable to give assent.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Supportive Parenting Assessed by the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire | Baseline to Post-test (6 weeks) | Supportive Parenting scale includes 3 items (e.g,. "you praise your child if he/she behaves well") made on a 5-point scale (0 = never, 1 = almost never, 2 = sometime, 3 = often, 4 = always). Scale ranges from 0 to 12. Item responses are summed. Higher scores indicate a better outcome of more supportive parenting. |
| Parenting Self-efficacy Assessed by the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale | Baseline to Post-test (6 weeks) | Parenting self-efficacy subscale includes 8 items (e.g., "If anyone can find the answer to what is troubling my child, I am the one") made on a 6-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree). Scale ranges from 8 to 48. Item responses are summed. Higher scores indicate better outcome of greater parenting self-efficacy. |
| Hopefulness Assessed by the Beck Hopelessness Scale-4 | Baseline to Post-test (6 weeks) | The Beck Hopelessness Scale-4 includes 4 items measuring hopelessness (e.g., "I feel the future is hopeless and that things cannot improve") made on a 4-point scale (0 = not typical, 1 = rarely typical, 2 = typical, 3 = very typical). Scale ranges from 0 to 12. Item responses are summed. Higher scores indicate worse outcomes in that they represent a higher degree of hopelessness. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Child Psychological Distress Assessed by the Pediatric Symptom Checklist | Baseline to Post-test (6 weeks) | The total problems scale on the Pediatric Symptom Checklist includes 17 items measuring child psychological distress (e.g., "Feels sad, unhappy") made on a 3-point scale (0 = never, 1 = sometimes, 2 = often). Scale ranges from 0 to 34. Item responses are summed. Higher scores indicate worse outcomes in that they represent higher psychological distress. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORCaitlin Rancher, PhD
Medical University of South Carolina
Participant flow
Pre-assignment details
Protocol enrollment represents the number of total participants enrolled (caregivers and their child). The Milestones within the Participant Flow report individual children and caregivers, although they participated as dyads.
Baseline characteristics
| Characteristic | — |
|---|---|
| Age, Categorical <=18 years | 16 Participants |
| Age, Categorical >=65 years | 1 Participants |
| Age, Categorical Between 18 and 65 years | 15 Participants |
| Child psychological distress assessed by the Pediatric Symptom Checklist | 14.28 Scores on a scale STANDARD_DEVIATION 4.67 |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Hispanic or Latino | 3 Participants |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Not Hispanic or Latino | 13 Participants |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Unknown or Not Reported | 0 Participants |
| Hopefulness assessed by the Beck Hopelessness Scale-4 | 2.06 Scores on a scale STANDARD_DEVIATION 2.17 |
| Parenting self-efficacy assessed by the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale | 32.35 Scores on a scale STANDARD_DEVIATION 5.21 |
| Race (NIH/OMB) American Indian or Alaska Native | 0 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Asian | 0 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Black or African American | 3 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) More than one race | 1 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 0 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Unknown or Not Reported | 6 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) White | 17 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Female | 10 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Male | 6 Participants |
| Supportive Parenting assessed by the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire | 9.50 Scores on a scale STANDARD_DEVIATION 2 |
Adverse events
| Event type | EG000 affected / at risk | EG001 affected / at risk |
|---|---|---|
| deaths Total, all-cause mortality | 0 / 16 | 0 / 16 |
| other Total, other adverse events | 0 / 16 | 0 / 16 |
| serious Total, serious adverse events | 0 / 16 | 0 / 16 |
Outcome results
None listed