Strongest FamiliesTM Neurodevelopmental

Summary

Children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental conditions are 3 to 5 times more likely than their peers to have other mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and disruptive behaviour. Furthermore, these conditions are less likely to be recognized, diagnosed and treated than for typically developing children. Parent training is a well-established approach to help parents change their behaviour and communication with their children with the goal of improving child behaviours. Parent-focused programs that are designed for typically developing children have shown mixed results for children with neurodevelopmental conditions and parents have reported significant challenges in accessing traditional health services due to barriers to care. There is an urgent need to explore how effective distance-delivered parenting programs can be implemented in real-world settings and how they should be adapted to meet the needs of families with children with neurodevelopmental conditions. The goal of this research project is to develop and test the effectiveness of two versions (group coaching \& self-managed) of an online parenting program for managing challenging behaviours in children with neurodevelopmental disabilities. The Strongest Families Neurodevelopmental program is based on the well-established Strongest Families Parenting program for typically developing children with challenging behaviours, adapted with substantial involvement from a pan-Canadian Parent Advisory Committee. The program consists of 11 skill-based sessions with demonstration videos, audio clips, exercises, a resource webpage and a Parent-to-Parent online group (a closed Facebook group).

Conditions

• Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Behavior Disorders

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Strongest Families Intervention (formerly Family Help)

Distance HEALTH education intervention focused on skill learning for parents

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• McGill University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Alberta

  collaborator OTHER

• Child-Bright Network

  collaborator OTHER

• IWK Health Centre

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Patrick J McGrath, PhD · IWK Health Centre

• Lucyna Lach, PhD · McGill University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

3 Years

Max Age

14 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-04-08

Primary Completion

2022-08-29

Completion

2022-08-29

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations