Impact of parents on group outcomes for parents of children with NDs
Research type
Research Study
Full title
\nExamining the impact of parents on group intervention outcomes for parents of children with a Neurodevelopmental Disorder \n
IRAS ID
299815
Contact name
Tim Fosker
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen's University Belfast
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
Many therapeutic models of support for children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) have capitalised on parental influence with the design of parent intervention programmes. Unsurprisingly, the effectiveness of these programmes has been linked to a number of key demographic characteristics of the participating parents. Specifically, age, gender, employment status, income, and marital status have all been shown to have an impact on treatment outcomes (Rickards et al., 2007; Gabriels et al., 2001; Shelleby & Kolko, 2013; Benson et. al, 2008; Carr et al., 2016). However, the psychosocial characteristics of parents are equally likely to impact treatment outcomes, despite being largely uninvestigated. In contrast to the demographic characteristics of parents, these psychosocial characteristics are likely to change during the course of a parent intervention programme, both as a direct (within the aims of the programme)and indirect result of participating. This research project aims to investigate the influence of participants in a parent-mediated intervention programme (parents) on the effectiveness of the intervention (degree of positive outcomes for the child and their family). Parental psychosocial characteristics will be examined, namely metacognitive skilfulness, coping skill, socio-communicative skill, and parental beliefs in relation to locus of control. In addition, these psychosocial characteristics and the demographic characteristics which are already known to have a significant impact on intervention outcomes, will be examined in the context of understanding parental readiness for an intervention. It is anticipated that the findings of this study will provide valuable information about the contribution of both variant and invariant parental characteristics to intervention effectiveness, thus informing future intervention design and implementation within service delivery models.
REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/SC/0384
Date of REC Opinion
24 Oct 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion