Foster Care
Conditions
Keywords
Foster children, Emotion regulation, Emotional awareness, Mentalization
Brief summary
This study examined whether Mentalization-Based Treatment for Children (MBT-C) could improve emotion regulation and emotional awareness among children in foster care. Thirty children aged 7-12 years were randomly assigned to either an MBT-C intervention group or a control group. The intervention group participated in 12 treatment sessions, while the control group received no intervention. Results showed that children who received MBT-C demonstrated improvements in adaptive emotion regulation and emotional awareness, and these improvements were maintained two months later. The findings suggest that MBT-C may be a useful intervention for supporting the emotional development of children in foster care.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALMentalization-based treatment for children
MBT-C is a transdiagnostic, time-limited, and manualized psychotherapy for children, delivered with parallel parent sessions. The model emphasizes a predetermined number of sessions, a treatment calendar, and a focused case formulation. A clear therapeutic contract is established at the beginning with both parents and children, fostering collaboration, agency, and transparency which is a significant aspect of the mentalizing stance. While MBTC is designed to address multiple domains, including explicit mentalization, attention control, and relational capacities, these domains were considered supportive targets in the present study, as they contribute to strengthening children's emotion regulation.
Sponsors
Ardakan University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
7 Years to 12 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* having emotional and behavioral difficulties, diagnosed using the cutoff score of 14 or higher on the carer-report version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), including scores of 5 or higher on the Emotional Symptoms subscale and 3 or higher on the Conduct Problems subscale. * Aged 7 to 12 years. * Living with foster parents for at least 4 weeks
Exclusion criteria
* Presence of an intellectual disability. * A diagnosed psychiatric disorder documented in the records of the Child Welfare Organization. * Participating in other psychotherapeutic interventions.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Emotional awareness | Baseline: One day before the first intervention session. Post-test: One day after the final intervention session. Follow-up: Two months after the final intervention session. | Emotional awareness is defined as the conscious ability to recognize, differentiate, and verbalize one's own emotions, while also identifying and interpreting the emotions of others, thereby supporting adaptive coping and psychological wellbeing. It was measured using the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ). It is a 30-item self-report measure of emotional awareness comprising six subscales: Differentiating Emotions, Verbal Sharing of Emotions, Bodily Awareness of Emotions, Acting Out Emotions, Analysis of Emotions, and Awareness of Others' Emotions. Subscale scores may be examined separately, and a total score can be calculated to reflect overall emotional awareness. Total scores range from 30 to 90, with higher scores indicating greater emotional awareness. |
| Emotion regulation | Baseline: One day before the first intervention session. Post-test: One day after the final intervention session. Follow-up: Two months after the final intervention session. | Emotion regulation refers to the internal and external processes through which individuals monitor, evaluate, and modify emotional experiences to achieve adaptive functioning. It was measured using The Emotional Regulation Checklist (ERC). This 24-item checklist is a caregiver-report measure designed to assess children's emotional expressiveness and regulation. Respondents rate each item on a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (rarely/never) to 4 (almost always). The ERC comprises two distinct subscales: Emotion Regulation (8 items; score range = 8-32) and Lability/Negativity (15 items; score range = 15-60). Scores for each subscale can be interpreted independently, with higher scores on the Emotion Regulation subscale indicating stronger regulatory capacities and higher scores on the Lability/Negativity subscale reflecting greater emotional dysregulation. |
Countries
Iran
Outcome results
None listed