Clinical trial NCT05037773: Intervention Targeting Parental Reminiscing and Its Effects on Preschoolers' Memory and Metacognition
Official title: Training Parents in an Elaborative Reminiscing Style to Boost Preschoolers' Development of Memory and Metacognition: A Randomized Controlled Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Child Development
Parent-Child Relations
Keywords: Typically developing preschoolers
Parental reminiscing
Memory
Metacognition
Lead sponsor: University of Liege
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2021-09-08
Enrollment: 40
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 36
Maximum age (years): 71
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: CROSSOVER
Intervention model description: All participants receive the same intervention. However, Group 1 receives the intervention immediately after the baseline and Group 2 (i.e., the waiting-list group - acting as the control group -) receives the intervention after a second baseline assessment which is held after the completion of the Group 1 (i.e., approximatively 10 weeks later). Parent-child dyads were assigned to one of the 2 groups using a stratified randomization on children's age and when possible on children's gender.

This design was chosen to check the specific efficiency of the intervention (i.e., which would result in no evolution for the Group 2 between the 2 baselines).
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: This randomized controlled study aims to investigate the effects of an intervention targeting parental reminiscing style on preschoolers' memory (i.e., episodic and autobiographical) and metacognition (i.e., confidence judgment and memorability-based heuristic).

Detailed description: It has been demonstrated that parental reminiscing plays an important role in preschoolers' cognitive development among which memory (Waters \& al., 2019). Specifically, both correlational and interventional studies show that children of parents using a high-elaborative style during reminiscing (i.e., frequent, detailed and collaborative discussions about the past) recount their memories in a more detailed and coherent way (Wu \& Jobson, 2019). Besides, some correlational studies (e.g., Langley et al., 2017) seem to also reveal an effect of parental reminiscing on children's ability to learn new information, as assessed in clinical neuropsychology by episodic memory tasks. However, the mechanisms underlying these influences are currently unclear. Indeed, several non-mutually exclusive hypotheses are frequently suggested (e.g., among which the development of metacognition (Rudek \& Haden, 2005)) but, to date, have never been tested. Identifying these mechanisms could contribute to design interventions targeting parental reminiscing and to determine in which clinical contexts to use them. Currently, interventional studies in the field are scarce (for a review, see Corsano \& Guidotti, 2019) and lack of consensus.

The primary aims of the present study are multiple. First, we aim to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief intervention program to improve the way parents reminisce with their child. After the intervention, we expect an increase in the frequency of use of the targeted behaviors and thus an increase in the level of parental elaboration. The second goal of this study is to explore the effects of the improvements in parental reminiscing style on children's memory skills, both autobiographical memory (i.e., ability to recount one's own memories) and episodic memory (i.e., ability to learn new information). Regarding autobiographical memory, we anticipate to replicate the results shown in other interventional studies (i.e., an increase in the amount of information reported by children at the end of the intervention; for a review, see Corsano \& Guidotti, 2019). Regarding episodic memory, based on the results of correlational studies (e.g., Léonard et al., in prep), we anticipate after the intervention to show among children an improved ability to learn new information. Beyond these primary aims, secondary aims are also targeted in this study. Currently, the mechanisms underlying the relation between parental reminiscing and child's memory are still relatively unknown. A hypothesis that is frequently suggested is the development of metacognition (Rudek \& Haden, 2005). One purpose of this study is to test this assumption by focusing on 2 metacognitive skills that develop during the preschool years: (a) the ability to make confidence judgments, (b) the ability to use the memorability-based heuristic. After the intervention, we expect children to make more accurate confidence judgments and to use more successfully the memorability-based heuristic to guide their memory decisions. Therefore, we may obtain information on the active ingredients of the relation between parental reminiscing and memory. Then, in an exploratory way, we explore whether such an intervention could improve parental cognitions as well as parents' perception of reminiscing with their child. We anticipate an improvement in parental cognitions and a more positive perception of reminiscing. Finally, we are interested in assessing parents' adherence to the intervention by exploring their feelings about its format, content and feasibility in daily life.

For all these purposes, a randomized controlled trial is currently being conducted. 2 experimental groups have been created and parent-child dyads were assigned to one of them using a stratified randomization on children's age and when possible on children's gender. Participants from both groups begin the study with an assessment of all variables of interest (i.e., baseline1). Immediately after this baseline assessment, participants from Group 1 receive the intervention. Participants from Group 2 (i.e., a waiting-list group acting as a control group) receive exactly the same intervention but later (i.e., after a second baseline assessment which is held after the completion of the intervention by the Group 1). Approximatively 2 weeks after the intervention, the dyads in each group undergo a post-intervention assessment (i.e., follow-up 1; similar to the baseline assessments). Besides, 6 months later, the Group 1 will participate in a follow-up session to check the persistence of the effects over time (i.e., follow-up 2). If the intervention is successful, this long-term follow-up may allow us to show either the maintenance of effects over time (e.g., an increase in parental elaboration) and/or the appearance of some effects (e.g., effects on child outcomes due to the time it takes for the improvement in parental style to have an effect on them).

In this study, all parents are provided with an 8-session intervention (i.e., 1 session/week) targeting different aspects of parental reminiscing: (a) the promotion of child participation (e.g., through parent's use of feedbacks), (b) the structure of reminiscing (e.g., parent's use of open-ended questions) and (c) the content addressed during reminiscing (e.g., contextual information). Parents learn to use the target behaviors through different standardized techniques: (a) psychoeducation, (b) modeling and (c) supervised practice. Due to Covid-19 epidemic, the intervention is held completely online (i.e., 4 e-learnings and 4 videoconferencing sessions).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Children: French as mother tong
* Parent : be the parent who talks the most with the child (if both parents speak equally, the choice of the participating parent is left to them)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Children: major cognitive or language difficulties at the time of the study and attested by a neuropsychological or language assessment
* Children: actual medication that may lead to cognitive difficulties

Primary outcomes:
measure: Parental reminiscing style
timeFrame: Group 1 : Baseline 1 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Parental reminiscing style
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Parental reminiscing style
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 2 (6 months after the intervention)
measure: Parental reminiscing style
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 1 (10 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Parental reminiscing style
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 2 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Parental reminiscing style
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Explicit knowledge about parental reminiscing
timeFrame: Group 1 : Baseline 1 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Explicit knowledge about parental reminiscing
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Explicit knowledge about parental reminiscing
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 2 (6 months after the intervention)
measure: Explicit knowledge about parental reminiscing
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 1 (10 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Explicit knowledge about parental reminiscing
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 2 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Explicit knowledge about parental reminiscing
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Children's autobiographical memory
timeFrame: Group 1 : Baseline 1 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Children's autobiographical memory
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Children's autobiographical memory
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 2 (6 months after the intervention)
measure: Children's autobiographical memory
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 1 (10 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Children's autobiographical memory
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 2 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Children's autobiographical memory
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (1)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Baseline 1 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (1)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (1)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 2 (6 months after the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (1)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 1 (10 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (1)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 2 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (1)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (2)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Baseline 1 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (2)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (2)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 2 (6 months after the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (2)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 1 (10 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (2)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 2 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Children's episodic memory (2)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Children's confidence judgments
timeFrame: Group 1 : Baseline 1 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Children's confidence judgments
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Children's confidence judgments
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 2 (6 months after the intervention)
measure: Children's confidence judgments
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 1 (10 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Children's confidence judgments
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 2 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Children's confidence judgments
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Children's use of the memorability-based heuristic
timeFrame: Group 1 : Baseline 1 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Children's use of the memorability-based heuristic
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Children's use of the memorability-based heuristic
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 2 (6 months after the intervention)
measure: Children's use of the memorability-based heuristic
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 1 (10 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Children's use of the memorability-based heuristic
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 2 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Children's use of the memorability-based heuristic
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
Other outcomes:
measure: Parents' perception of reminiscing with their child (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Baseline 1 (1 week before intervention)
measure: Parents' perception of reminiscing with their child (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Parents' perception of reminiscing with their child (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 2 (6 months after the intervention)
measure: Parents' perception of reminiscing with their child (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 1 (10 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Parents' perception of reminiscing with their child (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 2 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Parents' perception of reminiscing with their child (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Parenting cognitions (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Baseline 1 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Parenting cognitions (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Parenting cognitions (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 2 (6 months after the intervention)
measure: Parenting cognitions (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 1 (10 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Parenting cognitions (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 2 (2 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Parenting cognitions (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Parents' general feeling (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Baseline 1 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Parents' general feeling (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Parents' general feeling (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 2 (6 months after the intervention)
measure: Parents' general feeling (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 1 (10 weeks before the intervention)
measure: Parents' general feeling (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Baseline 2 (1 week before the intervention)
measure: Parents' general feeling (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Feasibility and adherence of the intervention (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 1 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
measure: Feasibility and adherence of the intervention (exploratory)
timeFrame: Group 2 : Follow-up 1 (2 weeks after the intervention)
Locations:
city: Liège
country: Belgium
facility: University of Liege
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Liege
name: Marie Geurten
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
affiliation: University of Liege
name: Sylvie Willems
role: STUDY_DIRECTOR
References:
citation: Waters TEA, Camia C, Facompre CR, Fivush R. A meta-analytic examination of maternal reminiscing style: Elaboration, gender, and children's cognitive development. Psychol Bull. 2019 Nov;145(11):1082-1102. doi: 10.1037/bul0000211.
citation: Wu Y, Jobson L. Maternal reminiscing and child autobiographical memory elaboration: A meta-analytic review. Dev Psychol. 2019 Dec;55(12):2505-2521. doi: 10.1037/dev0000821. Epub 2019 Sep 19.
citation: Langley HA, Coffman JL, Ornstein PA. The Socialization of Children's Memory: Linking Maternal Conversational Style to the Development of Children's Autobiographical and Deliberate Memory Skills. J Cogn Dev. 2017;18(1):63-86. doi: 10.1080/15248372.2015.1135800. Epub 2016 Sep 10.
citation: Rudek DJ, Haden CA. Mothers' and Preschoolers' Mental State Language During Reminiscing Over Time. Merrill Palmer Q. 2005;51(4):557-583. doi: 10.1353/mpq.2005.0026
citation: Corsano P, Guidotti L. Parents' reminiscing training in typically developing and 'at-risk' children: a review. Early Child Dev Care. 2019; 189(1): 143-156. doin: 10.1080/03004430.2017.1289518
citation: Geurten M, Bastin C. Behaviors speak louder than explicit reports: Implicit metacognition in 2.5-year-old children. Dev Sci. 2019 Mar;22(2):e12742. doi: 10.1111/desc.12742. Epub 2018 Sep 19.
citation: Bornstein MH, Putnick DL, Suwalsky JTD. Parenting cognitions --> parenting practices --> child adjustment? The standard model. Dev Psychopathol. 2018 May;30(2):399-416. doi: 10.1017/S0954579417000931. Epub 2017 Jun 19.