Efficacy of iMentalize and MISC-SA to Foster Parents' Mentalization and Children Mental Health in General Population.

Summary

OBJECTIVES: The goal of this parallel randomized controlled trial is to test the efficacy of the iMentalize program and the Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers - Self Administered version (MISC-SA) to foster parents' mentalization and children mental health in families from general population.

PARTICIPANTS will randomly receive one of the 3 interventions, all based in 30 weekly online non-synchronic sessions extended across 1 year: the iMentalize program (based on parent-child sessions where they see and talk about cartoon shorts), the MISC-SA (self-administered MISC version based on guided video-feedback using recordings of one's own parent-child interactions), and MISC-R (also self-administered but mainly based on readings and cognitive exercises instead of video-feedback), which is used here as Treatment as Usual (TAU, control group) because it is the most similar to most other intellectual and mainly theoretical trainings.

COMPARISONS: Researchers will compare all 3 groups among them to see to what extent:

* iMentalize program shows efficacy in fostering mentalization compared with MISC-SA and TAU (control group).
* iMentalize program shows efficacy in fostering children's mental health compared with TAU (control group).
* MISC-SA shows efficacy in fostering parent's mentalization and children mental health compared with TAU (control group).

Conditions

• Emotional Intelligence
• Social Interaction
• Mental Health Wellness 1
• Well-Being, Psychological

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

iMentalize Program (iMentalize)

This is a 30-hour group training involving 30 sessions lasting 45 minutes and 7.5 hours of inter-sessions work. Session 1: Program presentation; Session 2: Reflective Parenting; Session 3: Cartoon's session I (baseline); Session 3: What is Mentalization; Session 4: Fundamentals of Human Interaction; Session 5: Cartoon's session II (the beginnings); Session 6: Mentalization and Mental Health; Session 7: MISC context and cultural components; Session 8: Cartoon's session III (practice with MISC context comp.); Session 9: The importance of emotions in human interaction; Session 10: MISC emotional components; Session 11: Cartoon's session IV (practice with emotional comp.); Session 11: How mentalization is developed; Session 12: MISC cognitive components; Session 13: Cartoon's session V (practice with cognitive comp.); Session 14: How to foster children mentalization skills. Sessions 15 to 30: Cartoon's sessions using MISC components to foster children mentalization.

BEHAVIORAL

Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers, Self-Administered version (MISC-SA)

This is a 30-hour individual training involving 30-weekly online, individual, self-administered 45' sessions (22.5h) + 7.5h of between sessions work (readings, supervision, video- recordings for later video-feedback, reflection exercises). BLOCK I: Session 1: Presentation of the MISC program; Sessions 2 to 8 (Self-Administered or SA): Theoretical bases of the MISC; Sessions 9-18 (MISC practice and video-feedback); Summer break: Recording daily life interactions; BLOCK II: Session 19: Recap; Sessions 20-30: guided reflection and video-feedback.

BEHAVIORAL

Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers - Readings version (MISC-R): Treatment as Usual (TAU)

This is an equivalent 30-hour online self-administered training involving 30 x 45' individual online sessions (22.5h), mostly based on reflection exercises around brief readings, pills, and animated shorts, but not video- feedback and guided practice. This is complemented with 7.5h of between-sessions work based on looking for new information, adult-child (non-guided) activities (and not for later video- feedback) or out-of-line guided reflective exercises. Session 1: Program presentation; Session 2-8: Theoretical bases of MISC and mentalization; Session 9-16: MISC and mentalization applied to mental health; 17-18: Benefits of MISC to improve children learning; 19-20: Benefits of MISC for self-esteem; 21-22: The importance of MISC to foster mentalization; 23-24: Mentalization and pro-social behavior; 25-26: The importance of MISC to promote secure attachment; 27: MISC impact in epistemic trust; 28-29: MISC and well-being; 30: MISC, mentalization and environmental enrichment.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Sergi Ballespí, Researcher · Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

25 Years

Max Age

70 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-02-05

Primary Completion

2025-02-21

Completion

2025-03-03

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations