A multi-method assessment of parent-adolescent relationships and the effectiveness of a Teen Triple P discussion group in promoting adolescent functioning among adolescents with anxiety and conduct disorders.

The intervention is a single time-point, 2-hour discussion group that will be offered to parents as a stand-alone program. The ‘Coping with Teenagers’ Emotions’ discussion group is a 2-hour group (part of the Teen Triple P-Positive Parenting Program) that aims to teach parents strategies to encourage their adolescent to better manage their emotions, to deal with emotional behaviour and to effectively resolve problems that have triggered the emotional behaviour. The group sessions will be facilitated by a by a trained and accredited Triple P practitioner with approximately 10 to 20 parents in attendance per group. During the discussion group, parents will watch DVD segments to prompt group discussion and provide step-by-step suggestions about positive parenting strategies to help prevent problems and to cope with adolescents’ emotions and support the adolescent to deal appropriately with their feelings. The group will include active discussions of the parenting strategies introduced and will involve parents in developing a personalised parenting plan. Parents will be guided through the exercises in the workbook by the facilitator. The tasks have been designed to further parents’ understanding of the strategies introduced and issues raised by the group and to support implementation of the suggested strategies with their family. Every parent will receive a ‘Coping with Teenagers’ Emotions’ workbook that includes information and practical exercises covered during the discussion group. The workbook reinforces the material presented during the group and can be used at home with partners who were unable to attend. Parent-adolescent dyads will take part in two face-to-face multi-method assessment sessions, approximately six to eight weeks apart, pre- and post-intervention. The Time 1 (T1) pre-intervention assessment will commence with a diagnostic interview (A) administered to parents and adolescents to classify families into adolescent mental health categories i.e., Anxiety Disorder, Conduct Disorder, No Disorder. Parents and adolescents will complete questionnaires (B) independently to provide information on demographics, parenting behaviours and practices, parents’ and adolescents’ psychological wellbeing, and the quality of the parent-adolescent relationship. The battery of measures will be prepared in separate parent and adolescent survey packages. Parent-adolescent interactions will then be observed during adolescent completion of a problem-solving puzzle task to assess for the presence of behaviours characteristic of connectedness and hostility in the relationship (C). The video recording of the interactions will be played back to parents and adolescents individually to assess their beliefs, reactions and attributions during the problem-solving task (D). The Time 2 (T2) post-intervention assessment will involve tasks B, C and D. Longitudinal data will be obtained from parent-adolescent dyads at Time 3 (T3), 6 months after T2, via quantitative measures only (B).