Improving Social-Behavioral Adjustment in Adolescents through Parent Training

描述(申请人提供)：在青春期，年轻人经历了关键的生理、情感和认知变化。伴随着巨大的内部变化，青少年的同龄人关系变得越来越复杂(例如，小圈子)和挑战性(例如，同龄人压力)，随着青少年努力确定他们年轻时的角色，家庭内部的关系可能变得越来越紧张和冲突。当青少年在青春期的过渡中遇到困难时，他们患上各种精神健康障碍(如抑郁症、焦虑症)、适应不良行为模式(如自毁或冒险行为)和学业失败的风险增加。父母往往不知道如何与他们的孩子沟通，帮助他们度过青春期的动荡。随之而来的父母压力水平的增加不仅对青少年的适应产生负面影响，还会使父母面临更高的心理健康问题风险，特别是抑郁。这个第二阶段的SBIR项目将继续研发一种独特的家长培训干预产品--《青少年社会行为发展家长指南》(PGA)。PGA是专门帮助父母学习和实践有效帮助他们的青少年度过青春期人际斗争的策略(与同龄人和家庭成员)。PGA将帮助父母学习如何与他们的青少年合作实现社会目标，从而建立父母的信心，减少相关的父母压力，并加强亲子沟通。完整的PGA产品将为12个家长小组会议提供手动、结构化的脚本，为家长提供广泛的书面、视频和基于网络的干预材料，并为提供商提供各种在线专业发展和实施支持资源。一旦该计划最终敲定，将对其效果进行科学评估。父母将被随机分配到PGA治疗(TX)或注意力控制(AC)条件下(n=72)。疗效将通过以下方面的变化进行评估：(A)父母对青少年面临的社会问题的理解和解决社会问题的技能；(B)父母帮助青少年的自我效能；(C)育儿压力；(D)青少年的社交和行为功能；以及(E)作为治疗条件的父母-青少年关系的质量(例如，沟通、冲突)。我们预计TX条件在每个结果区域与AC条件相比将显示显著的积极变化，AC条件预计将显示很小的变化或没有变化。PGA将是一种非常独特的创新产品，将填补目前通过任何其他商业化产品填充的干预市场的利基市场。这项SBIR将为提供者和父母提供宝贵的资源，有可能对青少年及其家庭的生活产生重大影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): During adolescence, youth undergo pivotal biological, emotional, and cognitive shifts. Concomitant with immense internal shifts, adolescent peer relations become increasingly complex (e.g., cliques) and challenging (e.g., peer pressure) and, as teens struggle to define their young adult role, relationships within the family can become increasingly strained and conflictual. When youth experience difficulties navigating the transitions of adolescence, they are at heightened risk for developing a variety of mental health disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety), maladaptive behavior patterns (e.g., self-destructive or risk-taking behaviors) and academic failure. Parents are often at a loss for how to communicate with their teen to help them through the turmoil of adolescence. The resulting elevated levels of parental stress not only negatively impacts adolescent adjustment, but also places parents at heightened risk for their own mental health problems, particularly depression. This Phase II SBIR project will continue the research and development (R&D) of a unique parent training intervention product, the Parent Guide to Adolescent Social-Behavioral Development (PGA). PGA is specifically designed to help parents learn and practice strategies to effectively help their teen through the interpersonal struggles of adolescence (with peers and family members). PGA will help parents learn how to work collaboratively with their adolescent to achieve social goals, thereby building parental confidence, reducing related parental stress, and enhancing parent-teen communication. The full PGA product will offer manualized, structured scripts for 12 parent group sessions, a wide array of written, video, and web-based intervention materials for parents, and a variety of online professional development and implementation support resources for providers. Once the program is finalized, a scientific evaluation of its efficacy will be conducted. Parents will be randomly assigned to PGA treatment (TX) or attention control (AC) conditions (n=72 each). Efficacy will be evaluated by examining changes in (a) parent understanding of social issues facing adolescents and social problem solving skills; (b) parental self-efficacy for helping their teen; (c) parenting stress; (d) adolescent social and behavioral functioning; and (e) quality of the parent-teen relationship (e.g., communication, conflict) as a function of treatment condition. We expect the TX condition to show significant positive change in each outcome area versus the AC condition which is expected to show little to no change. PGA will be a highly unique, innovative product that will fill a niche in the intervention marketplace not currently filled through any other commercialized product. This SBIR will yield a valuable resource for providers and parents with the potential to make a significant impact on the lives of adolescents and their families.