Incredible Years - Parent Training

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Project Summary/Abstract Suicide is the eighth leading cause of death among U.S. children ages 5-11 years. From 2012-2017, youth suicides increased at an alarming 14.7% annually. During this time, ER visits increased 92% among 5- to 18- year-olds—to 1.12 million. Almost half of these visits involved a 5- to 11-year-old child. To date, however, limited research on child suicide and suicidal behavior (SB) exists, and there are no empirically supported prevention programs despite recognition by NIMH that youth suicide prevention should be a national priority. One especially vulnerable group is children with a parental history of suicide attempts (PH+). PH+ children are 4-6x more likely to engage in SB than their peers and show especially early age of onset—often before age 10. In this proposal, we target specific parent- and child-level vulnerabilities/risk factors for SB among these families. Although suicide risk is heritable, existing research shows (1) effects of shared family environment on SB and suicide, over-and-above genetic influences; and (2) specific family environment mechanisms that contribute to SB and suicide. Such mechanisms include harsh, invalidating, and low-warmth parenting, as well as impaired parent-child communication and poor parental monitoring of children’s behavior. These parenting practices reinforce emotional lability and emotion dysregulation, which are common to both parents and children in at-risk families. In our previous study (R21MH116206), PH+ children, ages 6-9 years, reported less family cohesion, and PH+ parents reported more permissive parenting, which co-occurs with harshness, hostility, and emotion dysregulation. Effective interventions that target these parenting practices and improve parent and child emotion regulation (ER) may reduce risk for youth SB but have not been tested in PH+ families. We will compare a virtual version of Incredible Years® parent training (IY-PT) to Enhanced Usual Care (EUC). IY-PT decreases parents’ emotional reactivity and teaches them to effectively “coach” their children on successful ER. IY-PT is effective in increasing positive parenting and improving ER skills of both parents and children, with large effect sizes that maintain at 1- and 2-year follow-ups. We will (1) test acceptability and feasibility of virtual IY-PT for this population from both parent and clinician perspectives; (2) determine whether IY-PT is effective in decreasing suicide risk among PH+ youth; and (3) explore acceptability and feasibility as potential moderators between PH+ status and parent and child outcome. ER and parenting are primary outcomes and NSSI, SI, and depressive symptoms are secondary outcomes. Measures include interviews, direct observations, and self-reports. Participants include 100 PH+ families who will complete a baseline, be randomized to virtual IY-PT or EUC, and complete 1-,3-, and 6-month reassessments post-intervention. This effectiveness-implementation hybrid model design I, guided by PRISM Implementation Science Framework, could have major implications for preventing an imminent public health concern among at-risk youth.