Nonviolent Communication for Parents

Hong Kong Metropolitan University

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Depression Symptom; Well-being; Anxiety

Treatments: Behavioral: Nonviolent Communication Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06943105

HE-RGC2024/NHS02

Details and patient eligibility

About

This randomised controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the effectiveness of face-to-face Nonviolent Communication (NVC) intervention in improving parents' mental well-being and NVC skills, reducing parenting stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, and child emotional and behavioural problems.

A total of 172 parents with primary-school-age children will be recruited and randomly assigned to an intervention group or a waitlist control group. The intervention group will receive six weekly 1.5-hour face-to-face NVC training sessions delivered by trained social workers.

Five to ten social workers will be trained by professional NVC trainers through a train-the-trainer workshop, including three sessions. Each social worker will be assessed before (TTT1), after (TTT2) the workshops and 10 months (TTT3).

Assessments for participants will be conducted at baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2), and at three-month follow-up (T3). After completing the assessments, the waitlist control group will receive the same sessions. Qualitative interviews will be conducted to explore participants' experiences and perceptions of NVC.

Enrollment: 172 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 24 to 59 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 1. parents aged 24-59 years with children of primary school age;
• 2. with mild to severe depressive symptoms (score >5 on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9) (Kroenke et al., 2001) and/or mild to severe anxiety symptoms (score >5 on the General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7) (Spitzer et al., 2006); and
• 3. Hong Kong residents who can understand Cantonese.

Exclusion criteria

• 1. under psychiatric treatment, psychotherapy groups and are classified as unstable cases based on the judgment of the recruiting social workers;
• 2. participating in other related parenting programmes.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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172 participants in 2 patient groups

Receiving NVC Interventions

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the intervention group will receive six weekly 1.5-hour face-to-face NVC training sessions delivered by trained social workers.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Nonviolent Communication Intervention

Wailist Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

The waitlist control group will not receive any training before all the assessments have been done by both groups. The wailist control group will receive NVC training sessions after all assessments. During the whole study period, these participants can access usual medical services, whether related or unrelated to mental health needs.