Tuning in to Kids® for Parents of Preschool-aged Children in Portugal

Summary

Early parent-child interactions, namely how parents respond to their children's emotions (i.e., emotion socialization parenting practices \[ESPP\]), may play a critical role in how children develop emotion regulation abilities. When parents rely on unsupportive ESPP, this can result in regulatory problems, which are a transdiagnostic symptom of MH problems, being a major cause of its etiology. Emotion-focused parenting programs, such as Tuning in to Kids® (TIK), promote parents' emotion coaching skills, enabling children to understand and regulate their emotions in more effective ways, while also supporting parents in managing their own emotions.

This study aims to examine the feasibility, acceptability, implementation fidelity and efficacy of the TIK program among parents of preschool-aged children in Portugal. TIK is a 6-week group, face-to-face program grounded in the principles of emotion coaching, among other theoretical backgrounds such as Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation Theories.

This trial is a parallel two-arm randomized clinical trial. Participants will be parents/legal guardians (\> 18 years old) with at least one child between 3 and 6 years old and with proficiency in portuguese. At least 152 parents/legal guardians will be recruited with the support of several community partners. Interested parents will be contacted by telephone to confirm their eligibility. Participants will be informed about their eligibility during the intake interview, followed by a full explanation of the clinical trial procedures. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group (TIK) or a waitlist control group, with the latter receiving the intervention after the follow-up assessment. The intervention consists of six weekly in-person group sessions plus one follow-up session, each lasting approximately 2 hours. Participants in both groups will complete questionnaires at three time points - baseline, post-intervention, and 2-month follow-up - covering different dimensions of children (e.g., children's emotional and developmental difficulties) and parental (e.g., parenting stress) psychological functioning, and parenting (e.g., ESPP).

Conditions

• Parental Emotion Socialization
• Parents' Beliefs About and Reactions to Children's Emotions
• Parental Emotion Regulation

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Tuning in to Kids®

Tuning in to Kids® (TIK) is a manualized program delivered by trained facilitators (6 weekly - 2h - group sessions) and aimed to promote parents' emotion socialization practices that are supportive of the child's expression of emotion (emotion coaching; e.g., comforting, teaching constructive means of coping), while reducing unsupportive ESPP (emotion dismissing; e.g., punishing or minimizing). An additional booster session may be held after two months of program's conclusion. TIK includes strategies informed by emotion coaching principles, including psychoeducation, roleplays, video materials, mindfulness-based exercises, and group discussions. By addressing a core mechanism leading to different emotional and behavioral childhood disorders (i.e. difficulties in emotion regulation), TIK is susceptible to promoting children's long-term full potential and parental mental health outcomes.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Aventura Social

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• NucliSol Jean Piaget

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Pressley Ridge

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Associação Nacional de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento, Investigação e Comunidade

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Instituto Belong - Desenvolvimento e Saúde

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Associação de Aldeias de Crianças SOS

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Associação Passo a Passo

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• CPCJ da Amadora

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• CPCJ de Lisboa Ocidental

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Instituto de Apoio à Criança

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• MSV - Crescer Como Família

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Unidade Local de Saúde Amadora-Sintra

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Comissão Nacional de Promoção dos Direitos e Proteção das Crianças e Jovens

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• FUNDAÇAO CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

  collaborator OTHER

• Lusofona University

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

99 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-12-02

Primary Completion

2026-09-30

Completion

2027-09-30

Countries

• Portugal

Study Locations