Clinical Research Directory

Empowering Youth With School Discipline Referrals as Peer Coaches

The study will examine the effects of Peer Coach Training (PCT), a strengths-based behavioral intervention for discipline-referred middle-school youth who might benefit when trained to act as change agents for their peers. Successful completion of this study will provide support for implementing PCT in school communities to empower youth in prosocial peer engagement.

Behavioral Parent Training to Address Early Childhood Disruptive Behavior Using the Helping Our Toddlers, Developing Our Children's Skills (HOT DOCS) Program and the Developing Our Children's Skills Kindergarten-5th Grade (DOCS K-5) Program

HOT DOCS and DOCS K-5 are group-delivered behavioral parent training interventions for caregivers of children ages 0-12 years.

Tele-PCIT for Healthy Relationships in Families At-Risk

The study will examine Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) delivered via telehealth (Tele-PCIT) for young children at risk for adverse childhood experiences and/or trauma exposure.

Step-by-Step: Evaluation of a Stepped Care Model

The primary aim of this project is to examine the effectiveness of a stepped care model of interventions for children's defiant or aggressive behavior problems. The stepped model consists of a brief internet-based parenting support program (Step 1). For those with continued need of additional interventions, Step 2 includes access to one of following interventions: b) a Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) -Virtual Reality (VR)-assisted parenting support program, b) a Cognitive Behavior Therapy -Virtual Reality-assisted child intervention, or c) standard interventions/support at the family's unit/clinic and continued access to the study's internet-based parenting support program, after which the family may choose CBT-VR for the child or the parent.

Personalizing Mental Health Treatment for Youth and Families

Incompatibility between evidence-based treatments (EBTs) and the cultural values, practices, and minoritized experiences of Latine youth and families contributes to racial-ethnic disparities in mental health treatment engagement and consequently mental health outcomes. The proposed study aims to develop and pilot a novel tool - the Culturally Responsive Assessment, Formulation, and Treatment Tool (CRAFTT) - for helping clinicians decide whether, when, and how to culturally adapt EBTs for individual Latine youth clients and thereby improve the cultural compatibility of EBTs for this underserved population. Completion of this study will result in a functional decision support tool designed to improve the quality and effectiveness of mental health services for Latine youths and promote mental health equity.

Internet-delivered Parent-Child Interaction for Parents of Children 2-7 Years With Disruptive Behaviors

The goal of this feasibility study is to evaluate feasibility of Internet-delivered Parent-Child Interaction Therapy for parents of children 2-7 years with disruptive behaviors. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Could a brief online version of PCIT (iPCIT) be feasible for reducing disruptive behaviors and internalizing problems in young children, and for improving the quality of parent-child interaction? 2. How is iPCIT experienced by participating parents? Participants will receive a 10-week online intervention of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy and answer questionnaires online weekly.

Behavior Therapy for Irritability in Autism

This is a clinical trial of a novel intervention, Behavioral Therapy for Irritability and Aggression (BTIA), for adolescents on the autism spectrum. The main goals of BTIA are to help adolescents develop emotion regulation skills to handle frustration and to strengthen skills for navigating the challenging and diverse experiences associated with the transition to adulthood. The study will test whether BTIA can be helpful to adolescents on the autism spectrum and to their families.

Effects and Implementation of a Brief Version of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects and feasibility of a shortened version of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), supplemented with video vignettes of parenting skills and 360-virtual reality (VR)-films for parents of children aged 2-7 years with disruptive behavior problems. The main questions the study aims to answer, using a Single-Case Experimental Design, are: 1. How feasible and acceptable is the implementation of brief PCIT-VR in Sweden? 2. What are the preliminary effects of brief PCIT-VR? 3. How do parents and clinicians experience brief PCIT-VR? Families at child and adolescent psychiatry clinics will receive up to 10 PCIT sessions. Caregivers complete quantitative assessments before, during, after treatment, and at 6-months follow-up, and are asked to participate in interviews after PCIT. Feasibility and acceptability of brief PCIT VR is evaluated, as well as effectiveness outcomes, including changes in child disruptive behavior and parenting skills. Within-group analyses will examine trends in outcome measures over time.

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) for Children With Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): A Stepped-Care Model

The purpose of this study is to understand how a stepped-care model of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (Step-Up PCIT) addresses child behavioral problems among children between the ages of 2 and 7 with a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Feasibility and Acceptability of Internet-based Parent-child Interaction Therapy (I-PCIT) in Pediatric Cancer

This study is being done to learn whether a telehealth intervention called "Internet-Based Parent Child Interaction Therapy," or I-PCIT," can help parents improve the child's behavior if the child currently or previously went through cancer treatment. Parents who choose to be in this study will complete a survey to help researchers figure out if the parent is eligible for the larger study. If a parent is eligible for the larger study and chooses to participate, if so, the participants will be randomly assigned to either receive the I-PCIT intervention now or to be on a waitlist and begin I-PCIT in 5-6 months. The whole study consists of completing I-PCIT sessions with a clinician and completing 3-4 follow-up surveys after the initial screener survey.

Executive Function and Parenting in Childhood

Deficits in executive functioning (EF) disproportionately impact children living in poverty and increase risk for psychopathology, particularly disruptive behavior disorders. This randomized clinical trial seeks to determine whether childhood EF, assessed across neural and behavioral units of analysis, is an experimental therapeutic target that can be directly modified through caregiver participation in the Chicago Parent Program (CPP), if increases in EF predict reduced disruptive behavior trajectories in low-income children over a short-term follow-up period, and identify which CPP-driven parenting skill improvements are the most influential in modifying EF. This work will contribute new knowledge as to whether a cost-efficient parenting intervention, developed for and with low-income families raising young children in poverty, can modify EF, a neural behavioral mechanism implicated in risk for childhood disruptive behavior problems.

Pilot Study of Parent Training With Role-plays in Virtual Reality for Parents of Children With Behavior Problems

The main aim of this pilot trial is to evaluate preliminary effects and feasibility of a new parent training program for parents of children aged 8-16 years with disruptive behavior (e.g., angry, aggressive or defiant behavior). The parent training program is based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and includes practicing of skills in virtual reality (VR). The main questions the project aims to answer are: * What are the preliminary effects of the CBT-VR parent training program? * What is the level of parent engagement in the CBT-VR parent training program? * What are the experiences of parents and therapists of the CBT-VR parent training program? The CBT-VR parenting program is delivered at clinics during individual sessions. Parents will answer quantitative measurements before, during, and after treatment. Within-group analyses will be conducted to examine experiences and preliminary effects of the program. Parents and clinicians are also asked to participate in a qualitative interview after the program has ended.

Pilot Study of Cognitive Behavior Therapy With Role-plays in Virtual Reality for Children With Behavior Problems

The main aim of this small pilot trial is to evaluate preliminary effects and feasibility of the child intervention YourSkills for child disruptive behavior (e.g., enhanced anger or aggressive behavior) when evaluated in Sweden for children/youth aged 10-16 years. YourSkills is based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and includes practicing of skills in virtual reality (VR). The main questions the project aims to answer are: * What are the preliminary effects of the child/youth CBT-VR-program? * What is the level of child/youth engagement in the CBT-VR program? * What are the experiences of parents, children/youth and therapists of the program? The CBT-VR program is delivered at clinics during ten individual sessions. Parents will answer quantitative measurements before and after treatment, children will answer quantitative measurements before, during and after treatment. Within- group analyses will be conducted to examine experiences and preliminary effects of the program. Parents, children and clinicians are also asked to participate in a qualitative interview after the program has ended.

A Randomized Controlled Trial on Brief Behavioral Parent Training

RATIONALE: The access to and uptake of evidence-based behavioral parent training for children with behavioral difficulties (i.e., oppositional, defiant, aggressive, hyperactive, impulsive, and inattentive behavior) are currently limited because of a scarcity of certified therapists and long waiting lists. These problems are in part due to the long and sometimes perceived as rigid nature of most evidence-based programs and result in few families starting behavioral parent training and high dropout rates. Brief and individually tailored parenting interventions may reduce these problems and make behavioral parent training more accessible. OBJECTIVES: This project aims to increase the effective use of parent training for children with behavioral difficulties by (1) examining short and longer-term effectiveness of a new, brief, individual, and individually-tailored parent training program with optional booster sessions to prevent relapse, compared to care as usual (CAU); (2) assessing the cost-effectiveness of the brief parent training program compared to CAU. STUDY DESIGN: In this two-arm, multi-center randomized controlled trial (RCT), parents are randomly assigned (1:1 ratio) to either (a) three sessions of brief behavioral parent training with optional booster sessions, or (b) CAU, as regularly provided by the involved mental healthcare centers. The study outcomes are measured at baseline before randomization (T0), one week after the third session for parents in the brief behavioral parent training arm and eight weeks after T0 for parents in the CAU arm (first posttreatment measurement, T1), six months after T1 (second posttreatment measurement, T2) and twelve months after T1 (third posttreatment measurement, T3). STUDY POPULATION: Parents of children who experience behavioral difficulties in the home setting and were referred to a child mental healthcare center. INTERVENTION: Parents in the intervention arm receive a short, individualized, three-session training primarily aimed at reducing children's behavioral problems. It exists of two (bi)weekly individually tailored training sessions of two hours and a third session of one hour in which the training will be evaluated, and maintenance training will be provided. After that, parents wishing to receive additional support can receive single booster sessions maximum once every four weeks and/or receive care as usual. Parents in the control arm receive care as usual for children's behavioral problems. The treatments in both arms are fully embedded in Dutch routine mental health care. MAIN STUDY PARAMETERS: The primary outcome is the severity of four individual target behavioral difficulties that parents want to address in the training. Secondary outcomes are parent-reported behavioral difficulties, parent-reported child well-being, parent-reported parenting behaviors, masked audio records of mealtime routines to measure parent and child behavior, parent-reported parenting stress, parent-reported parenting self-efficacy, parent-reported parental attitude towards their child, consumption and cost of mental health care, and health state utility values. We furthermore measure evaluations of the program by parents and therapists and explore whether parental attachment, parental psychopathology, parental reward responsivity, parent-reported child reward responsivity and punishment sensitivity moderate the intervention effects.

Randomized Controlled Trial of a Behavioral Training App

The investigators propose addressing and evaluating the efficacy of a behavioral, contingency management app by conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that will evaluate the app compared to a placebo app control group. Participants will be randomly assigned to immediate intervention using the treatment condition or to a placebo app condition. Participants will not know which condition they are assigned to until after the study completion; they will also not know that they are using the treatment app until after the study completion. The sample will consist of 100 families of school-age children (ages 6-12) who display significant behavioral problems. The treatment app is a task management platform containing a self-directed rewards system through which caregivers can assign token rewards to their children for completing routine tasks (e.g., cleaning their room, completing homework). Participants in the placebo app condition will have a similar user experience, however, tokens are assigned non-contingently (dispensed daily, rather than based on task completion). While participants will not be required to complete any tasks or behaviors in the app as part of their participation in the study, they will be asked to use the app at least once per day for 8 weeks. Given the self-directed nature of the treatment app (parents decide how frequently they access the app-based rewards system and how many tasks they assign to their child), parent involvement in the intervention will vary slightly in duration. However, based on the literature and routine practice, we anticipate parents will log in at least once a day to assign tasks to their child and follow up on completed rewards. Assessments (see details below) will occur at baseline, weekly during the intervention, and at the end of the study. The study will take about 8 weeks in total to complete once participants have been enrolled in the app.