A Randomised Controlled Trial of an Online Intervention to Prevent Anxiety in the Children of Anxious Parents
Trial acronym: PWA
Description
Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric condition of pre-adolescence, and analysis shows that it runs in families, i.e. children of anxious parents are twice as likely to have anxiety problems than children of the non-anxious.
This study is an online course (derived from an existing evidence-based face-to-face workshop designed and evaluated by the C.I) which aims to reduce symptoms of anxiety in the children of anxious parents. It is a learning tool to help parents to understand the basic processes involved in children's anxiety, to develop a calm, consistent, behaviour management style and to learn skills for responding to difficult emotion in their children.
The whole study takes place online, allowing the participants to sign up, run through some brief eligibility questions, read the study information and provide consent.
Once enrolled in the study, there is a series of baseline questionnaires. The participant also has the option to nominate someone who also knows their child well (e.g. a co-parent, a family member or close friend) to participate in the study with them and to complete a small number of questionnaires. This will help to give us a broader, more objective picture of the child, but is an optional part of the study. The index participant will be randomised to one of two groups: either the intervention (the online course), or the control group where they do not receive the intervention.
Those in the intervention will be provided with the online course, with some home-practice tasks in-between.
Both the intervention group and the control group participants will be contacted again after 6 months to complete a set of follow-up questionnaires (similar to those completed at baseline). Depending on when each participant joins the trial, they may be contacted a third time towards the end of the life of the study, to complete another set of questionnaires,9-21 months after their first.
Study design: Randomised controlled, intervention trial
Disease status: Parental Anxiety
Trial status: Closed
Chief Investigator: Professor Sam Cartwright-Hatton
Sponsor: University of Sussex
Funder: The Kavli Foundation
Start date: February 2021
End date: April 2023
Recruitment target: 1754
Summary of study results: N/A
For further information contact:
E: parents-study@sussex.ac.uk