Courageous Parents, Courageous Children

NCT ID: NCT03224845

Last Updated: 2024-08-21

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 88 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2017-09-17
• Study Completion Date: 2025-09-30

Brief Summary

Anxiety disorders usually start in childhood and adolescence and are associated with social and occupational difficulties in adulthood. Children who have a parent with an anxiety disorder and who find new situations distressing and avoid them are at an increased risk for developing an anxiety disorder. Research suggests that anti-anxiety parenting can help children grow up courageous and calm. It is, however, difficult to parent in an anti-anxiety way when the parent has an anxiety disorder himself or herself.

This research study will test the efficacy of a new program designed to prevent the onset or persistence of anxiety disorders in children at risk for anxiety disorders. The investigators will first help parents learn skills to cope with their own anxiety and then coach them to share these skills with their children and parent in an anti-anxiety way. The goal is to intervene early enough in the children's lives so that they can be free of anxiety disorders and lead happy, healthy and productive lives in adulthood.

Conditions

Anxiety Disorder

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Cognitive behavioural skills training

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Cognitive behavioural skills training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The intervention will be delivered in two stages: First, the parent with an anxiety disorder will attend between six and sixteen weekly sessions of cognitive behavioural skills training focusing on their own anxiety. They will work on developing behaviours that will help them become less anxious in the long-run and on learning to evaluate danger in a realistic way. Next, the parent will take part in four to eight weekly sessions of anti-anxiety parenting skills training aiming to help them transfer the skills that they learned into parenting their children. In the parenting intervention, the parents will be guided to gradually expose their children to new situations, build communication skills and confidence, in addition to general parenting skills and principles.

No intervention

Participants in the control group will receive their usual clinical care and will not be discouraged from seeking any intervention.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

Cognitive behavioural skills training

The intervention will be delivered in two stages: First, the parent with an anxiety disorder will attend between six and sixteen weekly sessions of cognitive behavioural skills training focusing on their own anxiety. They will work on developing behaviours that will help them become less anxious in the long-run and on learning to evaluate danger in a realistic way. Next, the parent will take part in four to eight weekly sessions of anti-anxiety parenting skills training aiming to help them transfer the skills that they learned into parenting their children. In the parenting intervention, the parents will be guided to gradually expose their children to new situations, build communication skills and confidence, in addition to general parenting skills and principles.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

Parents will be included if they have a current diagnosis of at least one anxiety disorder, one or more children between the ages two and eight years in their own care, capacity to provide informed consent, and ability to speak English well enough to benefit from the intervention.

Children are eligible if they are aged two to eight and if they have a score of inhibited temperament (negative emotionality) one standard deviation or more above the mean of an age-matched normative sample on the Laboratory Assessment of Temperament.

Exclusion Criteria

Offspring:

Those with lifetime schizophrenia, autism, general intellectual disability, and current drug and alcohol addiction will be excluded, as these conditions would impact on the standard delivery of the parenting intervention. We will exclude children currently receiving treatment for anxiety.

• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Nova Scotia Health Authority

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Locations

Nova Scotia Health

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

Canada

Central Contacts

Barbara Pavlova, PhD DClinPsy RPsych

Role: CONTACT

barbara.pavlova@dal.ca

902 473 2585

Jill Cumby, RN

Role: CONTACT

jill.cumby@nshealth.ca

902 473 1781

Facility Contacts

Jill Cumby

Role: primary

jill.cumby@nshealth.ca

902-473-1781

Other Identifiers

1022588

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id