RecruitingNot ApplicableNCT05603000

Emotion Focused Family Therapy for Parents of Children With Mental Health Difficulties

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Emotion Focused Family Therapy for Parents of Children With Mental Health Difficulties

Sponsor

University of Guelph

Enrollment

200 participants

Start Date

Oct 11, 2022

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Conditions

Depression Anxiety Behavior Problem

Summary

Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) is a promising intervention that aims to teach parents advanced skills to support their child's development of emotion skills and increase their adaptive behaviours, potentially leading to improvements in their child's psychological functioning and family functioning more broadly. This randomized controlled trial (RCT; EFFT vs waitlist control) will (1) test the efficacy of a 6-week group EFFT program on parent and child outcomes and (2) examine maintenance of treatment gains up to four months post-intervention.

Eligibility

Min Age: 7 YearsMax Age: 15 Years

Inclusion Criteria3

Parent of child aged 7 to 15 years old with anxiety, depression, or behavioural challenges
Parent of child is willing to participate in intervention
Parent is living at home with the child

Exclusion Criteria5

Parent or child not proficient enough in speaking/understanding English to complete measures or EFFT intervention components
Parent or child with a severe mental health disorder (e.g., active suicidality and psychosis) is not considered suitable for the trial intervention due to the clinical need for immediate intervention
Parent or child is actively receiving, or due to receive, intensive psychological intervention focused on cognitive and/or behavioural strategies to intervene with emotional or behavioural difficulties
Parent or child has any disabilities in language, speech or hearing that would interfere with their completion of the EFFT and measures
Parent or child are allergic to adhesive electrode gel use in some tasks (i.e., sodium chloride)

Interventions

BEHAVIORALEmotion Focused Family Therapy

The Emotion Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) intervention for this study will be delivered to groups of four to ten parents over six weekly sessions of two hours each. The goal of EFFT is to teach and empower parents to coach their child to process the emotions at the source of their mental health symptoms, to increase their child's adaptive behaviours, and to repair emotional injuries within the parent-child relationship. EFFT also targets parents' own emotional challenges that may prevent them from feeling capable or being able to support their child's treatment. Each EFFT session will include introductions, psychoeducation about emotion and psychopathology, introduction of skills, experiential activities (e.g., chair work), open discussion and feedback, and homework activities covering the foci of EFFT: emotion coaching, behaviour coaching, therapeutic apology, and parental emotion blocks.