ACT Dad Interview: ACT for Fathers of Children With Special Needs

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Caregiver Mental Health; FATHER; Developmental Disabilities; Parenting Stress; Special Needs Children

Treatments: Other: Semi-structured Focus Group Interview

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07591636

ACT Dad interview

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this qualitative study is to develop a therapy protocol for fathers of children with special needs in Hong Kong. The therapy is called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which helps people cope with difficult emotions by building psychological flexibility - the ability to accept and adjust to hard situations. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. What are the experiences and needs of fathers raising children with special needs?
2. What content and format of an ACT programme would be most helpful for these fathers?

Researchers will conduct focus group interviews with two groups of participants: fathers raising children with special needs and social workers who work with these families. The interviews will take about 60 to 90 minutes each.

Participants will:

1. Take part in a recorded focus group interview
2. Share their experiences, challenges, and views on what an ACT program should include

The findings will be used to develop a protocol for an ACT programme to improve the mental health of fathers raising children with special needs.

Enrollment: 20 estimated patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Informants will include 2 groups, 1) fathers rearing children with special needs and 2) social workers.

For fathers,

Inclusion Criteria:

1. are the biological fathers of children aged 2 to 12 years,
2. are with a child having a formal diagnosis of a developmental disability, including autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, intellectual disability, or related neurodevelopmental conditions,
3. are able to speak Cantonese and read Chinese.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Fathers with physical or cognitive impairment
2. Father with learning problems as identified from NGO or related medical records

For social workers,

Inclusion Criteria:

1. have experience in working with biological fathers of children aged 2 to 12 years who have a formal diagnosis of a developmental disability, including autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, intellectual disability, or related neurodevelopmental conditions,
2. are able to speak Cantonese and read Chinese.

Trial design

20 participants in 1 patient group

SEN father and social workers

Treatment:

Other: Semi-structured Focus Group Interview