Parent-Child Memory Study: Improving Future Thinking Among Mothers From a Traditionally Underserved Community to Reduce Harsh Parenting and Improve Child Outcomes - A Randomized Controlled Trial
Henry Ford Health System
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.
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 mi…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 5+ years
- Sex
- Female
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Parent Inclusion Criteria: 1. A mother and or grandmother from the Flint area with a child/grandchild between the ages of 5-10 who can provide legal consent for that child 2. Self-report that they have consistent contact with the child/grandchild 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 if interested in v…
Interventions
- BehavioralEpisodic Future Thinking (EFT)
The adapted episodic future thinking (EFT) intervention will focus on generation of vivid, substance-free, rewarding events that could happen in the future with their children.
- BehavioralEpisodic Recent Thinking (ERT)
In the episodic recent thinking (ERT) condition, the participant will instead describe in vivid details events that have occurred in the recent past.
Location
- Mothers of Joy Institute for Parenting and Family Wellness, IncFlint, Michigan