Improving Future Thinking Among Mothers to Reduce Harsh Parenting and Improve Child Outcomes

NCT ID: NCT05229146

Last Updated: 2025-03-14

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 48 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-06-02
• Study Completion Date: 2023-11-21

Brief Summary

Parents of children from impoverished communities are disproportionately more likely to engage in harsh physical discipline, which can lead to serious clinical outcomes, including suicidal ideation and attempts. One mechanism linking low resource environments and maladaptive parenting strategies is maternal delay discounting, or the tendency to value smaller, immediate rewards (such as stopping children's misbehavior via physical means) relative to larger, but delayed rewards (like improving the parent-child relationship). This study will examine the efficacy of implementing a low-cost, brief intervention targeting the reduction of maternal delay discounting to inform broader public health efforts aimed at improving adolescent mental health outcomes in traditionally underserved communities.

Detailed Description

Harsh parenting is associated with serious and costly mental health problems among youth, including substance use, mood disorders, and suicidal ideation and behaviors. Of concern, these parenting practices are most common among families from impoverished communities; however, many behaviorally-based parenting interventions do not take into account the unique mechanisms linking environmental disadvantage to parenting approaches. While the causes of harsh parenting are complex and varied, one such mechanism may be parents' tendencies to prioritize immediate rewards (such as stopping a child's misbehavior via physical punishment like spanking and hitting) relative to larger, but delayed rewards (including improved parent-child relationship quality), known as delay discounting. This case series will examine the efficacy of episodic future thinking (EFT) to target reduction of parenting-related delay discounting. Outcomes will evaluate the effect of EFT on reducing maternal delay discounting and harsh parenting, and improving child clinical outcomes.

Conditions

Behavioral Health

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Episodic Future Thinking

Mothers will receive episodic future thinking (EFT). Mothers will meet with a "peer mother" who will administer the EFT intervention, including generation of several specific future events reflecting positive interactions with their child. We will also teach each parent a behavioral parent training element called Special Play Time. Following this session, mothers will receive daily text messages over the course of two weeks including a reminder cue generated as part of the EFT and a prompt to remember these episodes in vivid detail.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Episodic Future Thinking

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Episodic future thinking (EFT) includes a focus on generating detailed and vivid descriptions of future events. For the current intervention, EFT will be modified to have mothers describe specific events with their children.

Interventions

Episodic Future Thinking

Episodic future thinking (EFT) includes a focus on generating detailed and vivid descriptions of future events. For the current intervention, EFT will be modified to have mothers describe specific events with their children.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

1. Be the mother from the Flint area of a child between the ages of 5-10 who can provide legal consent for that child to participate in this study

2. Self-report that the child lives with them for at least 50% of the time

3. Willing to participate in the study

4. Able to participate in written assessments and an intervention conducted in English

5. Have a working cell phone that can receive and send text messages and be willing to receive/send text messages as part of the study

6. Have a phone or device that's able to use video conferencing software

Exclusion Criteria

1. Self-disclosed active suicidality/homicidality

2. Self-disclosed current bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or psychosis

3. Current and ongoing involvement with child protective services

• Eligible Sex: FEMALE
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Maryland, College Park

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Kansas

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Michigan State University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Henry Ford Health System

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Julia Felton

Assistant Scientist

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

RL Jones Community Outreach Center

Flint, Michigan, United States

Countries

United States

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol

View Document

Document Type: Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

NHP: 15407-31

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id