Investigating the Impact of A Veteran-Focused Parenting Program on Parenting Stress, Competence and Parenting Practices

University of Tulsa

Status: Completed

Conditions: Parenting; Military Family

Treatments: Behavioral: Parenting Program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03722043

TU1726

Details and patient eligibility

About

Veterans or spouses of veterans with a minor child will participate in a five-week parenting program. The goals of the parenting program are to assist in improving parent's sense of competence, improving parent's emotional regulation abilities, and lower parental stress by incorporating mindfulness and values-based parenting principles. The program will utilize evidence-based practices that will be delivered in a manner that incorporates aspects of military culture (i.e., language and concepts are tailored to that used within military culture). Mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy have been shown to be effective in treating service members [1], and this will be the first study that examines how learning these principles do or do not impact parenting stress, competence, and practices. The parenting program is free, and is offered by the investigators as a community service. Participation in the parenting program does not obligate enrollment in the research study.

Full description

There are over 312,000 Veterans living in the state of Oklahoma [2]. The Coffee Bunker is a non-profit community agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma that serves as the flagships program for Serving Our Service Members (S.O.S). The Coffee Bunker's mission is to offer support to service members and Veterans by helping them reintegrate back into their families and communities. The overall purpose of the present study is to work with the Coffee Bunker in offering support towards their mission, specifically in delivering organized parenting programs to service members and Veterans.

Challenges of reintegration after a military deployment can increase levels of stress for Veterans, spouses, and their children. In fact, it is common for Veterans or service members who struggle with reintegration in their family to report feelings of isolation and lack of perceived control, which may impact their ability to parent effectively. The struggles of parents can negatively impact the functioning of the family, such that children may exhibit more behavioral problems and Veterans parents may be more vulnerable to mental health symptomology [3, 4]. Fortunately, research suggests that positive and effective parenting practices can mitigate family stressors [5, 6]. As such, given the stressors of reintegration among military families, it may be advantageous to implement an evidence-based psychoeducation parenting program tailored to Veterans. The goals of the parenting program are to assist in improving parent's sense of competence, improving parent's emotional regulation abilities, and lower parental stress. The current project will be evaluating possible benefits from an evidence-based parenting program with military families. The parenting program is free, and is offered by the investigators as a community service. Participation in the parenting program does not obligate enrollment in the study. This is made possible by one of the PI's (Zanotti's) Schweitzer Fellowship; Zanotti is conducting the parenting program along with Dr. Cromer, as a community service.

The research portion of this study will be voluntary, and while participants will be recruited from the parenting program, it will be made clear that they can opt into the parenting program without doing any of the research measures. The research portion evaluates whether participation in the parenting program reduces parenting stress, increases feelings of parenting competence, and improves parenting practices. This study is unique in that evidence-based practices will be delivered in a manner that incorporates aspects of military culture (i.e., language and concepts are tailored to that used within military culture). The parenting program will incorporate mindfulness and values-based parenting principles. Mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy have been shown to be effective in treating service members [1] and this will be the first study that examines how learning these principles do or do not impact parenting stress, competence, and practices.

Enrollment: 13 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Must be a parent of a minor
• Must be fluent in English
• Must be a veteran or have a spouse who is a veteran

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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13 participants in 1 patient group

Parenting Program

Experimental group

Description:

All study participants will receive our parenting program curriculum. There will not be a control group. The parenting program will include the topics of mindful parenting strategies, emotional regulation, positive discipline, and positive parenting/attachment. Participants will be provided skills to develop strategies for each of the modules. Each session will contain elements of group troubleshooting and practice in-session. Practice at home will be assigned so that participants can continue to practice and implement these skills and strategies in their homes. The program is taken from a published, empirically based program called "Everyday Parenting: A Professional's Guide to Building Family Management Skills" written by Thomas Dishion, Elizabeth Stormshak, and Kathryn Kavanagh.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Parenting Program