Background
Development of ‘Parenting Resilient Kids’
Guidelines subheading | Corresponding subsection of the parenting scale and feedback report | Title of interactive module | Outline of content | Rationale for inclusion |
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You can reduce your child’s risk of developing depression and clinical anxiety | NA. Not included in parenting scale or feedback report. | Not included in the modules | Psychoeducation about the role of parents in the prevention of depression and anxiety in primary school-aged children. | Endorsed by experts. |
Establish and maintain a good relationship with your child | Relationship with your child | Topic 1: Show affection and acceptance | Helps parents show their children physical affection and acceptance through words and actions. | Sound evidence that parental warmth is associated with less internalizing symptoms. Emerging evidence that parental warmth is associated with fewer depression symptoms. |
Topic 4: Make time to talk | Helps parents develop a supportive relationship with their child by learning effective ways to talk and listen to their child. | |||
Be involved and support increasing autonomy | Involvement in your child’s life | Topic 2: Be involved | Helps parents stay involved and interested in their child’s life. | Emerging evidence that parent’s knowledge regarding their child′s activities, whereabouts and friends (parental monitoring) is associated with less anxiety and depressive symptoms. |
Topic 3: Encourage autonomy | Helps parents encourage increasing age-appropriate autonomy in their child’s life. | Sound research evidence that over-involvement and autonomy granting are risk and protective factors, respectively, for depression; endorsed by experts. | ||
Encourage supportive relationships | Child’s relationships with others | Topic 9: Topic Encourage supportive relationships | Provides strategies for parents to support their child’s social skills development. | Emerging evidence that parental encouragement of sociability is associated with less child anxiety; endorsed by experts. |
Establish family rules and consequences | Rules and consequences for your child | Topic 6: Establish family rules and consequences | Highlights the importance of consistent and clear boundaries for child’s behaviours, and provides specific strategies to establish these. | Emerging evidence of the association between inconsistent discipline and internalizing symptoms; endorsed by experts. |
Encourage good health habits | Health habits | Topic 5: Encourage healthy habits | Provides strategies to help parents encourage good health habits in their child, including a healthy diet, physical activity, good sleep habits, and appropriate screen time. | Endorsed by experts |
Minimise conflict in the home | Home environment | Topic 10: Manage conflict in the home | Addresses the need for adaptive conflict management between parents, and between parent and child, and provides specific strategies to do these. | Evidence that inter-parental conflict and aversiveness (including parent-child conflict) are risk factors for depression (sound evidence) and anxiety (emerging evidence); endorsed by experts. |
Help your child to manage emotions | Managing emotions | Topic 8: Help your child manage emotions | Helps parents understand and talk about their child’s emotions as well as provides parents strategies to help children manage strong emotions. | Emerging evidence that parents modelling anxiety is associated with anxiety symptoms in children. Endorsed by experts. |
Help your child to set goals and solve problems | Setting goals and dealing with problems | Topic 7: Help set goals and solve problems | Provides strategies for parents to help their children develop good problem-solving skills. | Endorsed by experts. |
Support your child when something is bothering them | Dealing with negative emotions | Topic 11: Help your child manage anxiety | Provides strategies for parents to help their children manage their everyday anxiety. | Emerging evidence that parents modelling anxiety is associated with anxiety symptoms in children. Endorsed by experts. |
Help your child to manage anxiety so that it does not become a problem | Dealing with negative emotions | Topic 11: Help your child manage anxiety | Provides strategies for parents to help their children manage their everyday anxiety. | Emerging evidence that parents modelling anxiety is associated with anxiety symptoms in children. Endorsed by experts. |
Encourage professional help seeking when needed | Getting help when needed | Topic 12: Seek help | Helps parents understand what depression and anxiety problems can look like in primary school- aged children and what they can do if their child is/becomes unwell. | Endorsed by experts; evidence that parents are important conduits to children seeking professional help for mental health problems. |
Do not blame yourself (not included in the Guidelines and parenting scale, but included in feedback report for all parents) | NA. No module on this topic. | Aims to dispel guilt/self-blame in parents. | Endorsed by experts. |
Aim and hypotheses
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H1: The intervention group will show greater improvement than the control group in parenting risk and protective factors from baseline to 3-month follow-up (primary outcome), which will in turn mediate changes in child depressive and anxiety symptoms from baseline to 12 and 24 months (co-primary outcomes).
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H2: The intervention group will show greater benefits than the control group from baseline to 3-, 12- and 24-month follow-up, with regard to:
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H2a. Child depressive and anxiety symptoms (co-primary outcomes); and
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H2b. Child and parent health-related quality of life, and overall family functioning (secondary outcomes).
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Methods/design
Trial design
Ethical approval and trial registration
Participants
Sample size
Recruitment
Inclusion criteria
Procedure
Randomisation and blinding
Interventions
Intervention group
Control group
Order of presentation | Topic | Synopsis |
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Factsheet 1 | Child development in the pre-teen years: an overview | Helps parents understand their child’s physical, emotional and social changes in the pre-teen years. |
Factsheet 2 | Behavioural changes in the pre-teen years | Helps parents understand common behavioural concerns in the pre-teen years and learn ways to encourage good behaviour |
Factsheet 3 | Connecting and communicating | Helps parents understand the importance of staying connected with their child and provide ideas on ways to improve communication with their child |
Factsheet 4 | Internet safety | Provides parents with ideas on how to help their child use the Internet safely and responsibly |
Factsheet 5 | Health and wellbeing in the pre-teen years | Helps parents understand the importance for their child to have healthy lifestyle habits |
Factsheet 6 | Nutrition during the pre-teen years | Provides parents with ideas on making healthy food choices for their child |
Factsheet 7 | School and education in the pre-teen years | Helps parent understand how they can support their child’s learning and education |
Factsheet 8 | Building a strong positive relationship with the school | Provides parent with ideas on how to be involved in their child’s school and to build a positive relationship with the school |