Background. Understanding emotions, stress, and conflicts within the family context is critical for promoting positive change. However, most support services for families often address child development, parenting, couple relationships separately without considering these as interacting systems that contributes to overall family well-being. This project is to evaluate an existing clinical service in York University Psychology Clinic (YUPC), "Building Blocks for Child and Family Well-being" (BBFW), which provides an integrated understanding of the family context, and equips caregivers with tools to help families connect, problem-solve, cope with stress, and thrive. BBFW is a brief virtual program that promotes experiential learning, provides individually tailored strategies, and builds a community of support for caregivers. The current study aims to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of the BBFW program within the York University Psychology Clinic (YUPC), with four objectives: 1. Evaluating the feasibility of implementing the BBWF program into YUPC clinical services, represented by enrolment rates, sample characteristics, retention (i.e., number of sessions attended, % dropout), adherence (i.e., completing in- and out-of-session activities), as well as the acceptability of the program among participants. 2. Examining sample and clinical characteristics of those attending the BBFW service 3. Exploring the effectiveness of the BBFW program through changes in family functioning and meta-emotion philosophy from pre- to post-intervention, as well as changes at 1- and 3-month follow-ups. 4. Evaluating and refining the program quality using participant quantitative and qualitative feedback. The BBFW program is based on the best evidence from developmental, family, and relationship science. It aims to support family mental health and well-being through a holistic and sustainable approach, viewing the family as a set of multiple, interdependent systems. This program provides a brief, cost-effective, and accessible alternative with the potential to reduce the burden on traditional mental health and support services for Canadian families.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
32
BBFW is a 6-week brief virtual program that promotes experiential learning, provides individually tailored strategies, and builds a community of support for caregivers. The program provides an integrated understanding of the family context, and equips caregivers with tools to help families connect, problem-solve, cope with stress, and thrive. The following topics are covered over 6 weeks: Introduction to the model; Getting to Know Your Family Members (e.g., temperament); Supporting Child Emotions; Promoting Positive Behaviours; Limit-Setting and Sibling Dynamics; Parenting Teams and Wrap-Up.
York University,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
NOT_YET_RECRUITINGYork University Psychology Clinic
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
RECRUITINGParticipants Enrolled Per month
Number of participants enrolled per month.
Time frame: Week 0
Geographic Reach
Cities/towns in Ontario families accessing the program reside. Data will be collected through the demographic questionnaire administered at baseline.
Time frame: Week 0
Retention
The percentage of participants who remain in study until the end of the follow up session.
Time frame: Week 0 to Week 18
Adherence
Number of sessions attended.
Time frame: Week 1 to Week 6
Adherence
Completion rate of in session activities.
Time frame: Week 6
Child Age Groups
Mean age of child of the parent who is seeking service. Data will be collected through the demographic questionnaire administered at baseline.
Time frame: Week 0
Primary Presenting Concern
Primary presenting concern of parent who is seeking service, collected at baseline using demographic questionnaire. Options include: child emotion regulation; child behavioural problems; challenging siblings dynamics; challenging co-parenting dynamics (working as a team with second parent); family stress, chaos, and/or conflict; other \[please specify\].
Time frame: Week 0
Family Clinical Characteristics
Family Clinical Characteristics include parent relationship dimension. The Relationship Dimension Scale (Lafrance, Henderson, \& Mayman, 2020) is a 14-item tool for parents to reflect on different aspect of their relationships with their child/children. This is a qualitative measure that will be examined for themes arising in participating caregivers.
Time frame: Week 2
Family Clinical Characteristics
Family Clinical Characteristics include parent stress. The Family Stress Checklist includes 35 items which measures a parent's level of stress in 7 areas (i.e., financial, professional, physical, relational, environmental, child, parenting, discrimination). Each item is rated on a 5-item scale. Mean of items in each area will be calculated, with minimum score=1, maximum score=5. Higher scores correspond to higher level of stress in each area.
Time frame: Week 1
Client Satisfaction
Client Satisfaction will be measured using surveys and participant qualitative feedback. A brief satisfaction survey will be administered weekly at the end of each group session. This survey consists of 4 questions about the content, facilitation, group activities/discussion, as well as an open-ended question for general feedback about the session. In the end, participant will be asked to complete another satisfaction survey about the program overall. Means of the survey items will be calculated. Minimum score=1, maximum score=4. Higher scores correspond to higher satisfaction.
Time frame: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6
Client Acceptability
Percentage of participants reporting at least 'good' on 80 % or more indicators on an Implementation Acceptability Scale that will assess attitude, burden, perceived effectiveness, and ethicality. Minimum score=7, maximum score=35. Higher scores correspond to better outcomes.
Time frame: Week 6
Pre-Post Change in Parent Reported Family Functioning
Changes in Family Functioning will be assessed using the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD; Epstein et al., 1983). The scale has 60 items representing 7 subscales: Problem Solving, Communication, Roles, Affective Responsiveness, Affective Involvement, Behavior Control, General Functioning. Each item is rated on 4 point scale. Mean of each subscale will be calculated. For each subscale, minimum score=1, maximum score=4. Higher scores correspond to worse outcomes (i.e., less healthy family functioning).
Time frame: Changes from Week 0 to Week 6; from Week 0 to Week 10; from Week 0 to Week 18
Pre-Post Change in Parent Meta-Emotion Philosophy
Changes in Parent Meta-Emotion Philosophy will be assessed using the Emotion-Related Parenting Styles Scale-Short Form (ERPS-SF; Paterson et al., 2012). The scale has 20 items, each rated on a 5-point Likert Scale. Mean of items representing 4 parenting styles will be calculated. For each parenting style, minimum score=1, maximum score=5. The style with highest average score indicates the participant's emotion-related parenting style.
Time frame: Changes from Week 0 to Week 6; from Week 0 to Week 10; from Week 0 to Week 18
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