Family Conflict, Nonviolent Communication, Parent-Child Relationships, Parenting
Conditions
Keywords
Nonviolent Communication, Child-parent relationship, Personalised e-message, Text Messaging, Randomized Controlled Trial
Brief summary
This pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of combining a brief Nonviolent Communication (NVC) intervention with follow-up personalised AI-generated messages delivered daily via WhatsApp to improve child-parent relationships, parenting competence and family communication. A total of 60 parents of middle school students experiencing difficulties in family communication or recurrent conflict with their children will be recruited in Hong Kong and randomly assigned (in a 1:1 allocation ratio) to an intervention group or an attention control group. The intervention group will participate in two 2-hour NVC workshops, scheduled two weeks apart and delivered by the principal investigator, plus four weeks of personalised AI-generated NVC e-messages daily. The attention control group will receive weekly e-messages with healthy lifestyle tips for 6 weeks. Assessments for participants will be conducted at baseline (T0), post-workshop (T1, after the second session/two weeks after T0), and 12 weeks after baseline (T2). A process evaluation featuring quantitative ratings and open-ended questions will be conducted to explore participants' perceived benefits and subjective experiences.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALHealthy Lifestyle Tips
The attention control group will receive an information pamphlet that encourages them to maintain a healthy diet, engage in regular physical activity, and practice weight control. Participants will receive weekly WhatsApp messages about healthy lifestyle tips for 6 weeks.
BEHAVIORALNonviolent Communication Intervention & Personalised E-messages
The intervention includes an introduction to NVC's four principles, the difference between observations and judgments, identifying and expressing feelings, taking responsibility for feelings and needs, and using positive action language when making requests. The intervention workshops will be offered in rolling monthly cycles for approximately three rounds over three months (two rounds will be online, and one will be face-to-face). Participants who miss the second session may attend an equivalent session in the second or third cycle. Between and following the sessions, participants will receive AI-generated, tailored messages via WhatsApp daily for four weeks that provide concise NVC tips and guide parents through NVC-style conversations with their adolescents.
Sponsors
Hong Kong Metropolitan University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
32 Years to 59 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* 1\) parents aged 32-59 years with children attending middle school (approximately 12-17 years old) in Hong Kong; * 2\) scoring 3 or above in any item of the 3-item conflict subscale of the Network of Relationship Inventory (Furman \& Buhrmester, 2009); * 3\) able to read Chinese and use a smartphone to receive WhatsApp messages; * 4\) willingness to attend a two-session NVC intervention in group format.
Exclusion criteria
* 1\) severe mental health problems requiring immediate specialist care or inability to provide informed consent.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Recruitment rate | Baseline (T0) | Recruitment rate is defined as the proportion of eligible or contacted candidates who actually agree to join the study (Number Enrolled / Number Eligible or Approached). |
| Retention rate | 12-week assessment (T2, around 3 months after baseline) | Retention rate is defined as the percentage of randomised participants retained and assessed with valid primary outcome data. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Child-Parent Relationship | Baseline (T0), Post-workshop assessment (T1, 2 weeks after T0), and 12-week assessment (T2, around 3 months after T0). | The Child-Parent Relationship Scale (CPRS-SF) is a 15-item scale for evaluating two dimensions of the relationship between parents and children: conflict and closeness. Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree"). Scores for closeness and conflict are calculated separately, with higher closeness scores indicating a stronger emotional bond and a supportive relationship between parents and children (Driscoll \& Pianta, 2011). Higher conflict scores indicate greater conflict between parents and children. The internal consistency reliabilities were adequate in a Chinese sample (Cronbach's alpha = 0.78 to 0.81) (Tan et al., 2023). |
| Parenting Competence | Baseline (T0), Post-workshop assessment (T1, 2 weeks after T0), and 12-week assessment (T2, around 3 months after T0). | The Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC) (Ngai et al., 2007) is a 17-item scale to measure parents' perceived competence in the parenting role. Each item is rated on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). Higher scores indicate greater competence in parenting. Cronbach's alpha was 0.93 in a Chinese sample. |
| Family function | Baseline (T0), Post-workshop assessment (T1, 2 weeks after T0), and 12-week assessment (T2, around 3 months after T0). | The Family Communication Scale (FCS) is a 10-item scale used to measure family communication (Guo et al., 2021). Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree"). A higher total score (range 10-50) indicates a higher level of positive family communication. The Chinese version of FCS showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.91) and was stable over 1 month (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.69). |
| Anxiety | Baseline (T0), Post-workshop assessment (T1, 2 weeks after T0), and 12-week assessment (T2, around 3 months after T0). | The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7 scale is a 7-item instrument to assess anxiety symptoms in the past two weeks (Spitzer et al., 2006; Tong et al., 2016). Each item is scored from 0 to 3. The seven item scores are summed to yield a total score ranging from 0 to 21, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety symptom severity. |
Countries
Hong Kong
Contacts
CONTACTYuying Sun, PhD
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORYuying Sun, PhD
Hong Kong Metropolitan University
Outcome results
None listed