Clinical trial NCT05332236: Parent-adolescent Communication: Validation of a German Language Scale and Its Longitudinal Association with Adolescent Mental Health
Official title: Validierung Eines Psychometrischen Fragebogens Zur Eltern-Kind-Kommunikation Im Selbstbericht
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
Conditions: Parent-Child Relations
Keywords: parent-child communication, parent-adolescent communication
Lead sponsor: Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2022-04-18
Enrollment: 1111
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 10
Maximum age (years): 99
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: FAMILY_BASED
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Children and their parents from the general population, parents seeking advice in parenting support centres and their children, parents and children recruited among in- and outpatients at the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf

Brief summary: A German version of the Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS, Barnes \& Olson, 1982) will be validated in a large sample of children (10-18 years) and their parents. As a secondary objective, the association of communication quality, children's somatic symptoms and mental health will be explored. After two years, participants from the community sample will be contacted again to see whether baseline communication quality predicts adolescent mental health two years later.

Detailed description: The quality of parent-child communication (pcc) is likely to be of importance for child mental health, especially during adolescence. Therefore, pcc is relevant in etiologic research, diagnostics, and as a possible target for intervention in at-risk and clinical populations.

Up to now, there is no validated questionnaire in German language to assess pcc as parent and child self-report. A German translation of the widely used Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS, Barnes \& Olson, 1982) will be validated in this study. This questionnaire comprises 20 items that are identical in parent and child versions apart from the referent (my mother/my father/my daughter/my son). In the original scale, two subscales were found via factor analysis: Open communication and problems in communication (ten items each). Internal consistency was adequate in most studies. Several studies have shown associations between pcc and child mental health.

In the current study, the primary aim is to validate the questionnaire in a community, an at-risk, and a clinical sample, with the at-risk sample comprising parent-child dyads with parents seeking parenting advice. The clinical sample will be recruited among in- and outpatients at the Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Discriminative validity will be assessed in terms of group differences, construct validity in terms of correlations with different subscales on the parent-child relationship. With regard to the factorial structure, an exploratory factor analysis will be performed. As a secondary aim, the association between somatic symptoms, mental health, and pcc will be studied.

In the longitudinal part of the study, parent-child communication quality will be analysed as a predictor of mental health, especially depressive symptoms and somatic symptoms.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Consent to participate
* Child age: 10-18 years.

Exclusion Criteria:

- None.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Parent-adolescent communication scale
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Change in general adolescent mental health
timeFrame: From baseline to 2 years after recruitment
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Depressive symptoms two years after recruitment
timeFrame: Two years after initial recruitment.
measure: Change in somatic complaints
timeFrame: From baseline to two years after recruitment.
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Hamburg
country: Germany
facility: University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
Study officials:
affiliation: Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
name: Holger Zapf, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: