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NCT Number: NCT06943105

Nonviolent Communication for Parents

This randomised controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the effectiveness of face-to-face Nonviolent Communication (NVC) intervention in improving parents' mental well-being and NVC skills, reducing parenting stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, and child emotional and behavioural problems.

A total of 172 parents with primary-school-age children will be recruited and randomly assigned to an intervention group or a waitlist control group. The intervention group will receive six weekly 1.5-hour face-to-face NVC training sessions delivered by trained social workers.

Five to ten social workers will be trained by professional NVC trainers through a train-the-trainer workshop, including three sessions. Each social worker will be assessed before (TTT1), after (TTT2) the workshops and 10 months (TTT3).

Assessments for participants will be conducted at baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2), and at three-month follow-up (T3). After completing the assessments, the waitlist control group will receive the same sessions. Qualitative interviews will be conducted to explore participants' experiences and perceptions of NVC.

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Key information

Conditions

Anxiety Anxiety Disorders Behavior Behavioral Symptoms Depression Depression Symptom Mental Disorders Well-Being

Age range

24 year–59 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

The Jockey Club Institute of Healthcare of Hong Kong Metropolitan University

Hong Kong

Location status: Recruiting

Location contact

Grace Yuying Sun, PhD

CONTACT

[email protected]

852 39702916

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • 1) parents aged 24-59 years with children of primary school age;
  • 2) with mild to severe depressive symptoms (score >5 on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9) (Kroenke et al., 2001) and/or mild to severe anxiety symptoms (score >5 on the General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7) (Spitzer et al., 2006); and
  • 3) Hong Kong residents who can understand Cantonese.

Exclusion criteria

  • 1) under psychiatric treatment, psychotherapy groups and are classified as unstable cases based on the judgment of the recruiting social workers;
  • 2) participating in other related parenting programmes.

Treatment and study plan

Nonviolent Communication Intervention

Behavioral

The intervention will be conducted by social workers who will be trained by professional NVC trainers through a train-the-trainer workshop, including six sessions. The interventions include an introduction to four fundamental principles of NVC, distinguishing observations from evaluations, identifying and expressing feelings, taking responsibility for feelings and needs, and using positive action language to make requests. Each session will feature a review of the previous session, a warm-up game and an exercise to consolidate the learning of the concepts. The intervention sessions will also include group discussions and debriefing sessions on parents' experiences of practising NVC.

Primary outcomes

  1. Well-being

    Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2

    The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWS) is a 7-item scale for assessing mental health in non-clinical populations. Using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = none of the time, 5 = all the time), the total score is calculated by summing all seven items. The Chinese version showed good validity and reliability in the investigators' previous study. The congeneric reliability was 0.85 and the test-retest reliability was 0.70.

  2. NVC skills

    Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2

    The measure of NVC skills was developed based on a 16-item scale that represents the four principles of NVC skills. Each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 = never to 5 = always. The average score is calculated, with higher scores indicating better NVC skills. Cronbach's alpha was 0.82 in the investigators' pilot study.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Parenting stress

    Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2

    The Parental Stress Scale (PSS) is an 18-item questionnaire that assesses feelings about parents' parenting role. A 16-item version of the PSS was developed by Leung et al. for Hong Kong parents. Responses are given on a 5-point scale. The Chinese version showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: 0.86).

  2. Depressive symptoms

    Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2

    The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 is a 9-item instrument that is commonly used to measure depressive symptoms in the past two weeks. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 = not at all to 3 = nearly every day. The Chinese version showed good validity and reliability (Cronbach's alphas: 0.82-0.92).

  3. Anxiety

    Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2

    The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7 scale is a 7-item instrument to assess generalised anxiety disorder in the past two weeks. The response options for the seven symptoms are the same as PHQ-9. The Chinese version showed good validity and reliability (Cronbach's alphas: 0.89-0.95).

  4. Child emotional and behavioural problems

    Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2

    The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a 25-item emotional and behavioural screening questionnaire for children and young people. The version for the parents of 4-17-year-olds will be used. Each item is rated on a 3-point scale ('not true', 'somewhat true', 'certainly true'). The Chinese parent version showed good validity and reliability (Cronbach's alpha: 0.81).

Other outcomes

  1. Train-the-trainer outcome

    Time frame: T1: Baseline, before the workshop; T2: Immediate after the workshop; T3: 10 months after baseline.

    Social workers' understanding of NVC will be assessed at TTT1-TTT3. Overall satisfaction with the workshops will be assessed during TTT2. Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree).

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Grace Yuying Sun, PhD

CONTACT

[email protected]

852 39702916

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Hong Kong Metropolitan University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Effectiveness of Group-based Nonviolent Communication Interventions for Improving Mental Well-being in Parents: a Randomised Controlled Trial

Important dates

Study start
2025
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2026
First posted
Apr 24, 2025
Registry last updated
Sep 17, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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