Building Resilience and Attachment in Vulnerable Adolescents

N/ACompletedNCT01925807

Allison Kennedy76 enrolled

Overview

Suicide is the second leading cause of mortality for Canadian adolescents. Mental health complaints are one of the leading reasons for an emergency department visit at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario and 60% of adolescents report suicidal ideation. The goal of the present investigation is to test the efficacy of a brief group intervention for adolescents with passive suicidal ideation and their caregivers that will focus on coping, familial support, and emotional regulation. The investigators hypothesize that a brief group intervention, delivered in the weeks following presentation for crisis services, will reduce suicidal ideation and improve coping and familial support.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Suicidal Ideation

Interventions

The intervention will consist of 6 psycho-educational group sessions for caregivers and 6 psycho-educational group sessions for adolescents. Adolescent and caregiver sessions will be held separately and will focus on different issues. For adolescents, the group sessions will focus on coping strategies and emotional regulation. For caregivers, the group sessions will be focused on attachment, family environment, and validation.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 13 YearsMax age: 17 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Mild to moderate suicidal ideation * Recently presented for services in response to a psycho-social crisis (Emergency Department, MH Urgent Care) * One or two caregiver(s) committed to attending the majority of sessions Exclusion Criteria: * Presence of a suicidal plan and/or recent gesture/attempt * Psychosis * Schizophrenia * Dual diagnosis * Developmental disability or delay * "Behavioural problem" as primary concern * Major substance abuse * Currently receiving mental health services (once every two weeks or more frequently) * Inability to commit to majority of sessions (minimum 4 of 6 sessions) * Children's aid society involvement * Inability of at least one caregiver to commit to attending the majority of sessions

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Suicidal Ideation

Suicidal ideation will be measured using the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire Junior (SIQ-JR; Reynolds, 1988). Repeated Measures ANOVA or ANCOVA will be used to compare differences in suicidal ideation within groups (pre-post changes). Further comparisons using clinical cut-off will be conducted via McNemar test for matched pairs.

Time frame: 6 weeks

Secondary Outcomes

Familial Support

Familial support will be measured using questionnaires for both caregivers and youth. Youth will respond to the Family Environment Scale (Koren, DeChillo, \& Friesen, 1992) and the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (Armsden \& Greenberg, 1987). Caregivers will respond to the Family Environment Scale and and Relationship Scale Questionnaire (Griffine \& Gartholomew, 1994). Repeated Measures ANOVA or ANCOVA will be used to compare differences within groups (pre-post changes).