Wellbeing and Resilience Among 1-3 Years Old Children of Mothers with Complex Mental Health Problems: a Pragmatic Clinical Trial

Children of parents with severe mental disorders have an increased risk of mental disorders themselves, with more than half of this population diagnosed with a mental health condition during their life time. Already during early childhood, the risk of a mental health diagnosis is elevated by a factor 2-5, compared to children of parents without severe mental disorders. This highlights the need for preventive interventions.

Mental health during early childhood is inextricably linked with early parent-child interaction. Sensitive parenting plays a crucial role in the socio-emotional development of the child, and severe parental mental disorders may affect the quality of parent-child interaction.

Therefore, we will test the effect of an intervention promoting sensitive parenting on mental health outcomes of 1-3 years old children of parents with severe mental disorders. The intervention will be tested in a randomized clinical trial comparing the intervention "Video-feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline" (VIPP-SD) delivered online to Care As Usual. Our hypothesis is, that children in the Intervention Group will display lower levels of behavioral problems and increased attachment security compared to children in the Care As Usual Group.

The study will be conducted in the department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Mental Health Services in the Region of Southern Denmark. Participants are mothers with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, emotionally unstable personality disorder or moderate to severe depression living in the Region of Southern Denmark with their 1-3 years old child, and the father/cohabitating partner. Participants will be recruited via psychiatric outpatient clinics in the region or on the basis of information from health registers.

The primary outcome of the study is child behavioral problems. Secondary child outcomes are attachment security and mental health. Parental outcomes are parental stress and quality of life. Child cognition, parental psychiatric symptoms, childhood trauma, sensitivity, parental reflective functioning and service use data are also assessed in the study. Data are collected at baseline as well as 5 and 11 months after randomization. All participants will have the opportunity to receive feedback on their child's cognitive functioning and mental health status at baseline and at the end of the study.

After baseline assessments, participants will be randomized to either intervention or the control group.

The intervention, VIPP-SD, is delivered online apart from the first session, which is conducted as a home visit. VIPP-SD is based on attachment and social learning theory. It is manualized and consists of 12 individual sessions alternating between video-recording of mother and child in pre-defined everyday situations and review/discussion of the video recordings with the mother/parents. Focus of the intervention is the childs signals and needs, and how to promote healthy socio-emotional development of the child. VIPP-SD will be carried out by health care professionals trained and certified in VIPP-SD.

Participants who are randomized to the control condition, Care As Usual, will continue as they did before enrollment to the study. Care As Usual is defined as any kind of help and support related to the social-emotional development and mental wellbeing of the child in the municipality or mental health services.