Effectiveness of Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT) for Management of Psychological Distress and Family Functioning Among Parents of Children Exposed to Trauma

Nature of Study The proposed study is primary in nature. A primary data collection is intended for the current study, which would gather information from parents of children exposed to trauma Study Design The proposed research design, the current study would be centered on a mixed research design to measure study objectives. The objectives are based on the exploratory qualitative design and cross-sectional experimental research design. The study would adopt the mixed methodology (exploratory research design, cross-sectional research design) and randomized controlled experimental method (in terms of pre and post-intervention effects).

The child-parent relationship (in the context of closeness and conflict) would predict the primary outcome of family functioning (in the context of Warmth, Communication, Support conflicts, and worries) and psychological distress (in the context of depression, anxiety, stress). The secondary outcome would be the child's behavior (in the context of internalized symptoms of Grief/ Loss and anxiety/Mood). Child Parent-relationship therapy would be used for implementation to study the level of family functioning and psychological distress. CPRT will introduce special play time to the parent for the children exposed to trauma and will study the level of internalized symptoms of the child's behavior. The current study would find out the effectiveness of CPRT on child-parent relationships, parental psychological distress in family functioning, and parents of children exposed to trauma in twin cities of Pakistan.

During study one, the exploratory research design will be used to collect the data from the selected sample on knowledge, attitudes, and practices categories about the parent-child relationship, and psychological distress on family functioning among parents of children exposed to trauma. phase one is a pilot study. During phase two, a baseline survey will be conducted to see the association between the study variables and differences between the demographic characteristics of the sample.

During phase three Randomized controlled trial (RCT), will be used for: a) Mean scores validation of Child-parent relationship therapeutic techniques in the Pakistani family functioning. b) The parents of children exposed to trauma who receive intensive child-parent relationship training attain a comparison of level of psychological distress mean scores of DASS between the group compared with non-treatment comparison group parents of children exposed to trauma c) The Comparison between the mean scores of the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (concise form) parental version of children's disruptive behavior and significant difference between the pre-testing and post-testing. d) comparison between within a group mean scores of child-parent relationship scale in post-testing. e) Differences in mean scores between the experimental group's pre- and post-testing results and, f) Statistical mean score based on post-testing assessment results, statistical mean score differences will be evaluated between experimental and control groups.

Sample Research participants would be selected initially with snowball sampling techniques and later with purposive sampling. Research participants would be recruited including educated mothers (minimum qualification would be graduation 14 years of qualification) from twin cities (Rawalpindi and Islamabad) of Pakistan. The demographic characteristics of the sample would be, family system (joint family, and nuclear family system) , marital status(married, widow, separated/divorced), and monthly income and age. Additional inclusive sample criteria also include the parents of children exposed to traumatic experiences, child abuse, bullying, fighting, accidents, traumatized grief, and parents' separation. Exclusive Sample criteria will not include uneducated parents, domestic violence child sexual abuse, natural disasters, traumatic events that caused physical disabilities, war, terrorism victims, and families who would be taking any psychotherapy or training for the management of psychological distress and child disruptive behavior. Each potential parent would be screened briefly through screening inventories for all phases of the current study. Before every interview, the researcher would be clear the objectives of the current study. The ethical considerations would be considered for selected research participants for all phases.