Nonviolent Communication for Parents

Not Applicable

Not yet recruiting

• Conditions: Anxiety; Depression Symptom; Well-being

• Registration Number: NCT06943105
• Lead Sponsor: Hong Kong Metropolitan University

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.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2025-04
• Study First Submitted: 2025-04-17
• Study First Submitted QC: 2025-04-17
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-04-23
• Study First Posted: 2025-04-24
• Last Update Posted: 2025-04-25
• Study Start: 2025-05-01
• Primary Completion: 2026-03-31
• Study Completion: 2026-05-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: NOT_YET_RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 172

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.

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Well-being	T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2	The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWS) is a 7-item scale for assessing mental health in non-clinical populations. Using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = none of the time, 5 = all the time), the total score is calculated by summing all seven items. The Chinese version showed good validity and reliability in the investigators' previous study. The congeneric reliability was 0.85 and the test-retest reliability was 0.70.
NVC skills	T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2	The measure of NVC skills was developed based on a 16-item scale that represents the four principles of NVC skills. Each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 = never to 5 = always. The average score is calculated, with higher scores indicating better NVC skills. Cronbach's alpha was 0.82 in the investigators' pilot study.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Parenting stress	T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2	The Parental Stress Scale (PSS) is an 18-item questionnaire that assesses feelings about parents' parenting role. A 16-item version of the PSS was developed by Leung et al. for Hong Kong parents. Responses are given on a 5-point scale. The Chinese version showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: 0.86).
Depressive symptoms	T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2	The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 is a 9-item instrument that is commonly used to measure depressive symptoms in the past two weeks. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 = not at all to 3 = nearly every day. The Chinese version showed good validity and reliability (Cronbach's alphas: 0.82-0.92).
Anxiety	T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2	The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7 scale is a 7-item instrument to assess generalised anxiety disorder in the past two weeks. The response options for the seven symptoms are the same as PHQ-9. The Chinese version showed good validity and reliability (Cronbach's alphas: 0.89-0.95).
Child emotional and behavioural problems	T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2	The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a 25-item emotional and behavioural screening questionnaire for children and young people. The version for the parents of 4-17-year-olds will be used. Each item is rated on a 3-point scale ('not true', 'somewhat true', 'certainly true'). The Chinese parent version showed good validity and reliability (Cronbach's alpha: 0.81).

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

The Jockey Club Institute of Healthcare of Hong Kong Metropolitan University; 🇭🇰 Hong Kong, Hong Kong