"Making sense of my child's difficulties": A qualitative study. V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
"Making sense of my child's emotional and relationship difficulties": A qualitative study.
IRAS ID
267098
Contact name
Chloe Crompton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 29 days
Research summary
What is child-caregiver attachment?
Attachment is the bond between a caregiver and a child. It develops from birth throughout early childhood. It is based on the type of care and early experiences children have with their care-givers.
Children who have difficult early life experiences can have attachment difficulties; their behaviour can become hard to manage and they can experience difficulties expressing emotions or making and maintaining relationships. Children’s mental health services usually assess if a child has attachment difficulties and offer support to families.What are the aims of this research?
The aim of this research is to investigate parents’ feelings and thoughts when they have been told that their own child was thought to have emotional and relationship difficulties and how they make sense of it. This research also aims to find out what makes it easier and harder to understand this information.Why is it important?
It is important because there is no research on how parents make sense of this difficult information. Clinical experience suggests that it can be hard to hear. Therefore, parents saying what they found helpful and unhelpful could help clinicians who work in these services. Findings could also highlight what helps parents engage with support from services.What is the research procedure?
The aim is to have 12-15 parents and clinicians from the North West of England in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) who will be interviewed for 45-60 minutes. The interviews will be audio-recorded. They will then be transcribed and analysed to find the important parts of parents’ experiences.How will findings be shared?
It is planned that the study will be published in a journal article. For parents and clinicians who take part they will receive a summary of the findings if they wish.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0019
Date of REC Opinion
11 Mar 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion