Does dose matter? Parental attendance in a preventive intervention for anxious and sad children.

BACKGROUND

International studies show increasing prevalence of anxiety and depression among children. Parents are vital for children in all aspects of life, also in supporting their offspring in promoting better mental health, life skills and reducing emotional difficulties. Therefore, involving parents in interventions aimed at preventing development of anxiety and depression is natural. In treatment studies, targeted parental involvement has been difficult to prove effective. However, few existing studies investigate the effect of parental involvement in preventive interventions.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to explore whether attendance influenced the change in child's emotional symptoms post intervention and one-year later reported by parents.

METHOD

Parents of children attending an indicated preventive intervention named EMOTION, who took part in a high parental involvement condition were included in this study (n = 385). High involvement entailed 5 parent group sessions. Using linear mixed models, we investigated whether attendance in the parent groups influenced the parent-reported levels of children's emotional symptoms post-intervention and at one-year follow-up.

RESULTS

Parents who did not attend parent sessions reported significantly larger reductions in child anxiety symptoms over time than attending parents. There was no such effect on child depression. However, parents who attended sessions reported significantly higher depression symptoms than non-attendees at baseline. Further, attending more parent sessions did not significantly impact either symptom measure.

DISCUSSION

Given the non-significant differences of parental attendance in this study, future studies could examine less resource demanding interventions for children with emotional difficulties. When the child is struggling with anxiety and depression, the parent's role in child's life could be vital for symptom amelioration. The challenge is finding effective, evidence-based methods to involve parents, to reduce child emotional difficulties and improve their quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS

In this preventive study, attendance in parent sessions has limited effect on parent-reported symptoms of child emotional difficulties.