Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT01872585

Program for Caregivers Involved With Mental Health Services

The purpose of this two-year pilot study is to adapt a 12-week attachment-based parenting intervention for implementation with female adult caregivers who have or are at risk for long-term interpersonal conflict with family members, children, or significant others and are caring for a child between the ages of birth and 7 years.

Completed

Looking for future studies?

Notify Me

Key information

Conditions

Mental Illness Mental Disorders

Age range

18 year–65 year

Sex eligibility

Female

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Early Phase 1

Primary location

West Haven Mental Health Clinic

West Haven, Connecticut, 06516, United States

About this study

The purpose of this two-year pilot study is to adapt a 12-week attachment-based parenting intervention (Parenting from the Inside Out or PIO) originally developed for substance abusing mothers (as part of an ongoing NIDA-funded treatment development study; R01 DA17294) for implementation with female adult caregivers who have or are at risk for long-term interpersonal conflict with family members, children, or significant others and are caring for a child between the ages of birth and 7 years. The PIO intervention involves 12-24 weekly 1 hour individual therapy sessions with Masters level therapists who are trained and supervised by Dr. Suchman (the Principal Investigator) in the PIO approach.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

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

Inclusion criteria

  • receive psychiatric services through the adult or young adult treatment team at the West Haven Mental Health Clinic
  • have a child receiving psychiatric services through the child treatment team at the West Haven Mental Health Clinic
  • express interest in receiving a parent intervention at the West Haven Mental Health Clinic

Exclusion criteria

  • severe mental health problems (e.g., suicidal, homicidal, psychosis, thought disorder)
  • severely cognitively impaired
  • have psychiatric or substance-related symptoms requiring inpatient hospitalization or ambulatory detoxification
  • are not fluent in English
  • child has a serious illness or significant developmental delay (e.g., cognitive, language, or motor)

Treatment and study plan

Mentalization based therapy

Behavioral

12-24 weekly 1 hour individual therapy sessions with Masters level therapists who are trained and supervised by Dr. Suchman (the Principal Investigator) in the Parenting from the Inside Out approach. The broad goals of the program are to help prevent the onset of substance abuse and psychiatric disorders, promote adaptive interpersonal relationships and social-emotional functioning in caregivers and their children, and help prevent the transmission of psychiatric illness across generations

Primary outcomes

  1. Maternal reflective functioning

    Time frame: Change at week 12 from baseline

    PDI: Rated on a -1 to +9 scale where a score of 3 indicates simple awareness of mental states, 5 indicates rudimentary recognition of how mental states influence behavior, and above 5 indicates advance rPRFQ-1: Rated on a 7-point scale. 3 subscales: PMM (Pre-mentalizing Mode) with high scores indicating reliance on pre-reflective modes of thinking about child's behavior, NRO (Not Recognizing Opacity) with high scores indicating less recognition of the opaque nature of the child's mental states, and IC (Interest and Curiosity) with high scores indicating more interest and curiosity about the child's underlying mental states.

  2. Maternal reflective functioning

    Time frame: Change at week 24 from baseline

    PDI: Rated on a -1 to +9 scale where a score of 3 indicates simple awareness of mental states, 5 indicates rudimentary recognition of how mental states influence behavior, and above 5 indicates advance rPRFQ-1: Rated on a 7-point scale. 3 subscales: PMM (Pre-mentalizing Mode) with high scores indicating reliance on pre-reflective modes of thinking about child's behavior, NRO (Not Recognizing Opacity) with high scores indicating less recognition of the opaque nature of the child's mental states, and IC (Interest and Curiosity) with high scores indicating more interest and curiosity about the child's underlying mental states.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Coding Interactive Behavior

    Time frame: Change at week 12 from baseline

    The caregiver-child dyad will be given age-appropriate toys and instructed to interact freely and session is videotaped and coded using CIB. Composite scores are scored on a 1 - 5 scale. Composite maternal scales include Sensitivity, Intrusiveness, Limit Setting, and Negative Emotion. Composite Child Scales include Child Involvement, Withdrawal and Compliance. Composite Dyadic Scales include Reciprocity and Dyadic Negative States.

  2. Coding Interactive Behavior

    Time frame: Change at week 24 from baseline

    The caregiver-child dyad will be given age-appropriate toys and instructed to interact freely and session is videotaped and coded using CIB. Composite scores are scored on a 1 - 5 scale. Composite maternal scales include Sensitivity, Intrusiveness, Limit Setting, and Negative Emotion. Composite Child Scales include Child Involvement, Withdrawal and Compliance. Composite Dyadic Scales include Reciprocity and Dyadic Negative States.

  3. Maternal parenting stress

    Time frame: Change at week 12 from baseline

    The PSI yields five scores: Parent Dysfunction, Parent-Child Difficulty, Difficult Child, Defensive Responding, and Total Stress which are standardized to percentile rankings. We will be testing for reduction in each stress domain to below the 85th percentile.

  4. Maternal parenting stress

    Time frame: Change at week 24 from baseline

    The PSI yields five scores: Parent Dysfunction, Parent-Child Difficulty, Difficult Child, Defensive Responding, and Total Stress which are standardized to percentile rankings. We will be testing for reduction in each stress domain to below the 85th percentile.

  5. Maternal depression

    Time frame: Change at week 12 from baseline

    Scores range from 0 to 63. We will be testing for significant reduction in total depression.

  6. Maternal depression

    Time frame: Change at week 24 from baseline

    Scores range from 0 to 63. We will be testing for significant reduction in total depression.

  7. Maternal global psychiatric distress

    Time frame: Change at week 12 from baseline

    The composite Global Severity Index (GSI) from the Brief Symptom Inventory measures current overall symptomatology across multiple domains (e.g., depression, anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, somatic complaints, paranoid ideation) and has demonstrated good reliability and validity. T scores above 60 on the GSI indicate risk for a clinical disorder.

  8. Maternal global psychiatric distress

    Time frame: Change at week 24 from baseline

    The composite Global Severity Index (GSI) from the Brief Symptom Inventory measures current overall symptomatology across multiple domains (e.g., depression, anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, somatic complaints, paranoid ideation) and has demonstrated good reliability and validity. T scores above 60 on the GSI indicate risk for a clinical disorder.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Yale University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

Feasibility Study of a Mentalization-based Parenting Program for Female Caregivers Involved in Mental Health Services.

Important dates

Study start
2012
Primary completion
2014
Study completion
2014
First posted
Jun 7, 2013
Registry last updated
Apr 2, 2020

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.

Related clinical trials

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.