Supporting Parents in Affirming Their Children's Experiences of Stigma (SPACES)

Yale University

Status and phase: Enrolling; Phase 1

Conditions: Parent-Child Relations

Treatments: Behavioral: Brief online writing intervention; Other: Control condition

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT05919849

2000035266

1R21HD110617-01A1 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to develop and test two brief online writing interventions to improve parental acceptance of sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) in the Southeast United States.

Full description

The purpose of this study is to develop and test the acceptability, feasibility, and preliminary efficacy of two brief online writing interventions to improve parental acceptance of sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) in the Southeast United States. Parental support represents the strongest predictor of sexual and gender minority youth's (SGMY) mental health. However, many parents react to their SGMY's disclosure with rejection. Even relatively accepting parents can experience discomfort, while SGMY often report lingering unmet needs from their parents into adulthood. Few interventions exist to help parents support their SGMY child and none has been tested in a randomized trial with efficacy for decreasing parental rejection and increasing support of their SGMY. This proposal will develop and test the efficacy of two theory-based interventions that aim to address this gap. Results will identify mechanisms contributing to parental rejection and develop scalable approaches to reduce these mechanisms to shrink the substantial mental health disparities affecting SGMY. If efficacious, these interventions can be scaled up through online platforms capable of bypassing barriers to parental support of SGMY across high-stigma regions.

The focus of this registration is the randomized controlled trial.

Enrollment: 129 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 15+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Parents are eligible if they meet the following criteria:

   1. Be a parent, grandparent, or any other family member who considers themselves a guardian of an SGMY between 15-29 years old,
   2. Live in the Southeast United States (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky, Florida),
   3. Identify as heterosexual and cisgender, and
   4. Report non-acceptance of their SGMY.

2. SGMY are eligible if they meet the following criteria:

   1. Self-identify as SGM,
   2. Are 15-29 years old,
   3. Live in the Southeast United States, and
   4. Have a parent enrolled in the trial

   Exclusion Criteria:

3. Any individual who meets any of the following criteria will be excluded from participation in this study:

   1. Active mania, psychosis, or suicidality, and
   2. Unable to provide informed consent.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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129 participants in 3 patient groups

Expressive Writing (EW)

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the expressive writing (EW) condition will be instructed to write in a free-form manner about the most stressful aspects of being a parent of an SGMY, following standard EW procedures.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Brief online writing intervention

Attachment-Based Writing (ABW)

Experimental group

Description:

Participants in the attachment-based writing (ABW) condition will respond to distinct prompts created for the condition based on components of attachment-based family therapy (ABFT).

Treatment:

Behavioral: Brief online writing intervention

Neutral Writing (Control)

Other group

Description:

Participants in the control condition will be asked to write about what they have done since waking up that morning.

Treatment:

Other: Control condition