Clinical trial NCT06943105: Nonviolent Communication for Parents
Official title: Effectiveness of Group-based Nonviolent Communication Interventions for Improving Mental Well-being in Parents: a Randomised Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
Phase: NA
Conditions: Anxiety
Depression Symptom
Well-being
Keywords: Nonviolent Communication
parents
Depressive Symptoms
Anxiety
Lead sponsor: Hong Kong Metropolitan University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2025-04-24
Enrollment: 172
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 24
Maximum age (years): 59
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: This randomised controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the effectiveness of face-to-face Nonviolent Communication (NVC) intervention in improving parents' mental well-being and NVC skills, reducing parenting stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, and child emotional and behavioural problems.

A total of 172 parents with primary-school-age children will be recruited and randomly assigned to an intervention group or a waitlist control group. The intervention group will receive six weekly 1.5-hour face-to-face NVC training sessions delivered by trained social workers.

Five to ten social workers will be trained by professional NVC trainers through a train-the-trainer workshop, including three sessions. Each social worker will be assessed before (TTT1), after (TTT2) the workshops and 10 months (TTT3).

Assessments for participants will be conducted at baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2), and at three-month follow-up (T3). After completing the assessments, the waitlist control group will receive the same sessions. Qualitative interviews will be conducted to explore participants' experiences and perceptions of NVC.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* 1) parents aged 24-59 years with children of primary school age;
* 2) with mild to severe depressive symptoms (score \>5 on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9) (Kroenke et al., 2001) and/or mild to severe anxiety symptoms (score \>5 on the General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7) (Spitzer et al., 2006); and
* 3) Hong Kong residents who can understand Cantonese.

Exclusion Criteria:

* 1) under psychiatric treatment, psychotherapy groups and are classified as unstable cases based on the judgment of the recruiting social workers;
* 2) participating in other related parenting programmes.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Well-being
timeFrame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
measure: NVC skills
timeFrame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Parenting stress
timeFrame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
measure: Depressive symptoms
timeFrame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
measure: Anxiety
timeFrame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
measure: Child emotional and behavioural problems
timeFrame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
Other outcomes:
measure: Train-the-trainer outcome
timeFrame: T1: Baseline, before the workshop; T2: Immediate after the workshop; T3: 10 months after baseline.
Locations:
city: Hong Kong
country: Hong Kong
facility: The Jockey Club Institute of Healthcare of Hong Kong Metropolitan University
Study officials:
affiliation: Hong Kong Metropolitan University
name: Grace Yuying Sun
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: