Addressing Depression and Positive Parenting Techniques (ADAPT)

Summary

Children with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) experience disproportionate social, family and academic impairment and have between two to five times increased likelihood of developing an anxiety disorder, mood disorder or other severe mental illness in adolescence and adulthood. There is a close association between parental depression and the emergence and maintenance of childhood EBD that is likely bidirectional. Parents of children with EBD experience disproportionate stress, increasing their risk for depression; yet chronic and untreated parental depression is associated with the emergence of child EBD in the first place. Therefore, designing targeted and effective assessment and treatment for parents of children with EBD that take into account parents' depression is necessary. Of pressing concern, first-line Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) treatments for parents of children with EBD are not tailored to parent's mental health needs, which may be why upwards of 40 percent of parents and children treated in these programs fail to sufficiently benefit. Existing research highlights emotional and cognitive factors that may differentiate depressed parents from non-depressed parents that may be treatment targets to improve outcomes for depressed parents and children.

The main aim of the proposed project is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a novel targeted treatment for depressed parents of children with EBD, along with adherence to study protocol. The investigators will use the results of the pilot study to make key modifications to study procedures and the treatment itself to increase the success of a future randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test treatment efficacy.

The investigators hypothesize that:

1. Recruitment will be feasible.
2. The intervention will be acceptable, and there will be a high rate of adherence to study protocol.

Conditions

• Depression
• Emotional Problem
• Disruptive Behavior Disorder
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Conduct Disorder
• Oppositional Defiant Disorder
• Behavior Problem

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Addressing Depression and Positive Parenting Techniques (ADAPT) Program

The intervention is a targeted parenting intervention that has modules that help parents build emotion regulation skills, distress tolerance skills and alternative and more helpful ways of thinking about the causes of their child's EBD. The program also includes behavioral parent training skills building modules.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Women's College Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Brendan F Andrade, Ph.D. · Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Years

Max Age

10 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-05-01

Primary Completion

2024-09-01

Completion

2024-12-01

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations