An In-situ, Child-led Intervention To Promote Emotion Regulation Competence in Middle Childhood: Protocol For an Exploratory Randomised Control Trial (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Slovak ◽  
Brett Q. Ford ◽  
Sherri Widen ◽  
Claudia Daudén Roquet ◽  
Nikki Theofanopoulou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Haptic Feedback ◽  
Process Analysis ◽  
Child Outcomes ◽  
Randomised Control Trial ◽  
Intervention Model ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Prevention And Treatment

BACKGROUND Emotion regulation is a key transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychopathologies, making it a prime target for both prevention and treatment interventions in childhood. Existing interventions predominantly rely on workshop or in-person therapy-based approaches, limiting the ability to promote emotion regulation competence for children in everyday settings and at scale. Purrble is a newly developed, inexpensive socially assistive robot—in the form of an interactive plush toy—which uses haptic feedback to support in-the-moment emotion regulation. It is accessible to children as needed in their daily lives, without the requirement for a priori training. While qualitative data from prior studies show high engagement in-situ and anecdotal evidence of the robot being incorporated into children’s emotion regulation routines, there is so far no quantitative evidence of the intervention’s impact on child outcomes. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to examine, for the first time, the efficacy of a new intervention model for child-led emotion regulation—Purrble—that could be deployed across prevention and treatment contexts. METHODS A total of 120 children aged 8-10 will be selected from an `enriched’ non-clinical US population: for inclusion, the cutoff for parent’s rating of child dysregulation will be 10 points or higher on the total difficulties score on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. This cutoff selects for a measurable—but not necessarily clinical—level of the child’s emotion regulatory difficulties. The selected families will be randomly assigned with .5 probability to receive either Purrble or an active control (non-interactive plush toy). The primary outcome will be a daily EMA measure of child emotion regulation capability (as reported by parents) over a period of 4 weeks. Exploratory analyses will investigate the intervention impact on secondary outcomes of child emotion regulation, collected weekly over the same 4 week period, with follow-ups at 1 month and 6 months post-deployment. Quantitative data will be analysed on an intent-to-treat basis. A proportion of families (~30% of the sample) will be interviewed post deployment as part of process analysis. RESULTS The study is funded by UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/T041897/1) and an in-kind contribution from Committee for Children. It received ethical approval from the Pearl IRB (#18-CFC-101). Participant recruitment will start in February 2021, with the 1 month deployment expected in April - May 2021. The results of the analysis will be published in 2021. CONCLUSIONS The study will be the first quantitative evaluation of the efficacy of an innovative, proof-of-concept intervention model for an in-situ, child-led emotion regulation intervention. The insights into the trajectory of daily changes, complemented with weekly questionnaire batteries and post-deployment interviews will result in an in-depth understanding of whether, and how the hypothesised intervention logic model works, leading to further intervention optimisation.

scholarly journals An In-situ, Child-led Intervention To Promote Emotion Regulation Competence in Middle Childhood: Protocol For an Exploratory Randomised Control Trial (Preprint)

10.2196/28914 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Slovak ◽  
Brett Q. Ford ◽  
Sherri Widen ◽  
Claudia Daudén Roquet ◽  
Nikki Theofanopoulou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Randomised Control Trial

scholarly journals A Smart Toy Intervention to Promote Emotion Regulation in Middle Childhood: Feasibility Study

10.2196/14029 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. e14029
Author(s):  
Nikki Theofanopoulou ◽  
Katherine Isbister ◽  
Julian Edbrooke-Childs ◽  
Petr Slovák
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Protective Factor ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Object A ◽  
Intervention Delivery ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Prevention Interventions

Background A common challenge with existing psycho-social prevention interventions for children is the lack of effective, engaging, and scalable delivery mechanisms, especially beyond in-person therapeutic or school-based contexts. Although digital technology has the potential to address these issues, existing research on technology-enabled interventions for families remains limited. This paper focuses on emotion regulation (ER) as an example of a core protective factor that is commonly targeted by prevention interventions. Objective The aim of this pilot study was to provide an initial validation of the logic model and feasibility of in situ deployment for a new technology-enabled intervention, designed to support children’s in-the-moment ER efforts. The novelty of the proposed approach relies on delivering the intervention through an interactive object (a smart toy) sent home with the child, without any prior training necessary for either the child or their carer. This study examined (1) engagement and acceptability of the toy in the homes during 1-week deployments, and (2) qualitative indicators of ER effects, as reported by parents and children. Results Across all families, parents and children reported that the smart toy was incorporated into the children’s ER practices and engaged with naturally in moments the children wanted to relax or calm down. Data suggested that the children interacted with the toy throughout the deployment, found the experience enjoyable, and all requested to keep the toy longer. Children’s emotional connection to the toy appears to have driven this strong engagement. Parents reported satisfaction with and acceptability of the toy. Conclusions This is the first known study on the use of technology-enabled intervention delivery to support ER in situ. The strong engagement, incorporation into children’s ER practices, and qualitative indications of effects are promising. Further efficacy research is needed to extend these indicative data by examining the psychological efficacy of the proposed intervention. More broadly, our findings argue for the potential of a technology-enabled shift in how future prevention interventions are designed and delivered: empowering children and parents through child-led, situated interventions, where participants learn through actionable support directly within family life, as opposed to didactic in-person workshops and a subsequent skills application.

Feasibility study of technology-enabled prevention intervention for children and families (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikki Theofanopoulou ◽  
Katherine Isbister ◽  
Julian Edbrooke-Childs ◽  
Petr Slovák
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Digital Camera ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Object A ◽  
Intervention Delivery ◽  
Parents And Children

BACKGROUND A common challenge within psychiatry and prevention science more broadly is the lack of effective, engaging, and scale-able mechanisms to deliver psycho-social interventions for children, especially beyond in-person therapeutic or school-based contexts. Although digital technology has the potential to address these issues, existing research on technology-enabled interventions for families remains limited. OBJECTIVE The aim of this pilot study was to examine the feasibility of in-situ deployments of a low-cost, bespoke prototype, which has been designed to support children’s in-the-moment emotion regulation efforts. This prototype instantiates a novel intervention model that aims to address the existing limitations by delivering the intervention through an interactive object (a ‘smart toy’) sent home with the child, without any prior training necessary for either the child or their carer. This pilot study examined (i) engagement and acceptability of the device in the homes during 1 week deployments; and (ii) qualitative indicators of emotion regulation effects, as reported by parents and children. METHODS In this qualitative study, ten families (altogether 11 children aged 6-10 years) were recruited from three under-privileged communities in the UK. The RA visited participants in their homes to give children the ‘smart toy’ and conduct a semi-structured interview with at least one parent from each family. Children were given the prototype, a discovery book, and a simple digital camera to keep at home for 7-8 days, after which we interviewed each child and their parent about their experience. Thematic analysis guided the identification and organisation of common themes and patterns across the dataset. In addition, the prototypes automatically logged every interaction with the toy throughout the week-long deployments. RESULTS Across all 10 families, parents and children reported that the ‘smart toy’ was incorporated into children’s emotion regulation practices and engaged with naturally in moments children wanted to relax or calm down. Data suggests that children interacted with the toy throughout the duration of the deployment, found the experience enjoyable, and all requested to keep the toy longer. Child emotional connection to the toy—caring for its ‘well-being’—appears to have driven this strong engagement. Parents reported satisfaction with and acceptability of the toy. CONCLUSIONS This is the first known study investigation of the use of object-enabled intervention delivery to support emotion regulation in-situ. The strong engagement and qualitative indications of effects are promising – children were able to use the prototype without any training and incorporated it into their emotion regulation practices during daily challenges. Future work is needed to extend this indicative data with efficacy studies examining the psychological efficacy of the proposed intervention. More broadly, our findings suggest the potential of a technology-enabled shift in how prevention interventions are designed and delivered: empowering children and parents through ‘child-led, situated interventions’, where participants learn through actionable support directly within family life, as opposed to didactic in-person workshops and a subsequent skills application.

Disorganized/controlling attachments, emotion regulation, and emotion communication in later middle childhood

2021 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 101324
Author(s):  
Laura E. Brumariu ◽  
Kathryn A. Kerns ◽  
Kathryn R. Giuseppone ◽  
Karlen Lyons-Ruth
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Middle Childhood

scholarly journals Does father–child conflict mediate the association between fathers’ postnatal depressive symptoms and children's adjustment problems at 7 years old?

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 1719-1733 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Nath ◽  
G. Russell ◽  
W. Kuyken ◽  
L. Psychogiou ◽  
T. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Child Outcomes ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Behavioural Problems ◽  
Emotional And Behavioural Problems ◽  
Postnatal Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Paternal Depressive Symptoms ◽  
Externalizing And Internalizing Problems ◽  
Children's Emotion

BackgroundPaternal depressive symptoms are associated with children's emotional and behavioural problems, which may be mediated by negative parenting. But there is no research on the influence of paternal depressive symptoms on children's emotion regulation and limited literature investigating fathers’ parenting as a mediator in the pathway between paternal depressive symptoms and children's externalizing and internalizing problems. We aimed to investigate the mediating role of father–child conflict (at 3 years) in the association between postnatal paternal depressive symptoms (at 9 months) and children's emotional and behavioural problems (at 7 years) (aim 1). We also examined whether mediation pathways were more pronounced for boys or for girls (aim 2).MethodSecondary data analysis was conducted on the Millennium Cohort Study, when children were 9 months, 3 years and 7 years old (n = 3520). Main study variables were measured by self-report questionnaires. Fathers completed the Rutter Scale (depressive symptoms) and the Parent–Child Relationship Questionnaire (father–child conflict), while mothers completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Social Behaviour Questionnaire (child emotional and behavioural problems, emotion regulation). We used structural equation modelling to estimate direct, indirect and total effects of paternal depressive symptoms on child outcomes, mediated by father–child conflict whilst adjusting for relevant covariates (maternal depressive symptoms, child temperament, marital conflict, and socio-economic factors such as poverty indicator and fathers’ education level). Multi-group and interaction analysis was then conducted to determine the differential effect by gender of the association between paternal depressive symptoms on child outcomes via father–child conflict.ResultsFather–child conflict mediated the association between paternal depressive symptoms and emotion regulation problems [standardized indirect effect (SIE) 95% confidence interval (CI) −0.03 to −0.01, p < 0.001; standardized total effect (STE) 95% CI −0.05 to −0.01, p < 0.05] (aim 1). Father–child conflict mediated a larger proportion of the effect in boys (SIE 95% CI −0.03 to −0.01, p < 0.001; STE 95% CI −0.05 to 0.00, p = 0.063) than it did in girls (SIE 95% CI −0.02 to −0.01, p < 0.001; STE 95% CI −0.04 to 0.01, p = 0.216) (aim 2).ConclusionsFather–child conflict may mediate the association between postnatal paternal depressive symptoms and children's emotion regulation problems. Paternal depressive symptoms and father–child conflict resolution may be potential targets in preventative interventions.

Small intestinal segment perfusion test in piglets: future applications in studying probiotics-gut crosstalk in infectious diarrhoea?

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. van der Meulen ◽  
M. Hulst ◽  
M. Smits ◽  
T. Schuurman
Keyword(s):  
Physiological Response ◽  
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia Coli ◽  
Weaned Piglets ◽  
Infectious Diarrhoea ◽  
Secretory Diarrhoea ◽  
Prevention And Treatment ◽  
Small Intestinal ◽  
Traveller’S Diarrhoea ◽  
Intestinal Compartments

Worldwide infectious diarrhoea, mainly caused by rotavirus and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC), accounts for a large part of deaths in children. ETEC is also the main cause of traveller's diarrhoea. Probiotics are promising for prevention and treatment of diarrhoea, but there is insufficient evidence to support the use of any specific probiotic or probiotics in general. Because of the sensitivity of suckling and weaned piglets for ETEC, piglets are a good model for infectious diarrhoea in infants and traveller's diarrhoea. Just as in human the efficacy of probiotics in diminishing diarrhoea and improving growth in suckling and weaned piglets is not uniform. A piglet model of infectious diarrhoea provides access to intestinal compartments that are not easily accessible in infants. In an in situ piglet model of secretory diarrhoea, the functional physiological response to ETEC and the concomitant host genome response to ETEC and probiotics may be tested. This will provide new insights in the complex crosstalk between ETEC, probiotics and the gut in the future.

Emotion regulation as a mediator of associations between mother–child attachment and peer relationships in middle childhood.

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josefina M. Contreras ◽  
Kathryn A. Kerns ◽  
Barbara L. Weimer ◽  
Amy L. Gentzler ◽  
Patricia L. Tomich
Keyword(s):  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Peer Relationships ◽  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Child Attachment
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