MedPath

Online Social Learning Program for Parents With Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Raising Resilient Children

Not Applicable
Recruiting
Conditions
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Abdominal Pain
Interventions
Behavioral: Social Learning and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (SLCBT)
Behavioral: Attention Education Control
Registration Number
NCT05730491
Lead Sponsor
Seattle Children's Hospital
Brief Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to test efficacy of the REACH program in parents with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and their young children. The main question it aims to answer is:

-How can parents with IBS help their young kids develop healthy habits?

Participants will be asked to complete online surveys and to use a website. Researchers will compare results from parents who use one of two websites chosen by chance, like flipping a coin. One website focuses on child health and safety behaviors. The other website focuses on strategies to promote child wellness behaviors.

Detailed Description

To date, preventive interventions have not been applied to reduce intergenerational transmission of pain conditions. There are several reasons that abdominal pain presents an ideal model for this important work. Abdominal pain is the second most common recurrent pain complaint of childhood. It is associated with disruption of normal activity, including school attendance and poor quality of life, and is emotionally distressing for both children and parents. Research demonstrates that illness behaviors are linked to development of abdominal pain disorders in children.

The investigators hypothesize that a social learning intervention modified toward a preventive focus for parents with IBS who have young children, ages 4-7 years, will reduce risk factors (anxiety, catastrophizing, parenting stress) and increase protective factors (positive affect, social support), resulting in lower parental solicitous behaviors, fewer child abdominal pain symptoms, reduced child health care utilization, and better child physical, psychological, social, and school functioning. The objective of the current application is to test the efficacy of an early preventive intervention targeting parents with IBS whose young children are thus at higher risk for developing abdominal pain. To enhance potential for scalability and dissemination, and meet parental preferences, the intervention is delivered via the internet.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
460
Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Social Learning and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (SLCBT)Social Learning and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (SLCBT)-
Attention Education ControlAttention Education Control-
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change in parental encouragement of child illness behaviorBaseline, 4-6 weeks, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Assesses self-reported parental encouragement of child illness behavior. The Adult Responses to Child Symptoms (ARCS) has 29-items that load onto 3 subscales (Protectiveness, Monitoring/Encouragement, Minimization). Responses are rated on a 5-point scale ranging from "never" to "always." . Higher average scores indicate that the responses are more frequently used, and thus higher scores are less adaptive ways of responding.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change in health-related quality of lifeBaseline, 4-6 weeks, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Parent proxy report and child self-report (ages 7+). The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) is a brief measure of health-related quality of life in children. The measure can be completed by parents (the Proxy Report) for children as young as age 2 years. The 23 items in the PedsQL comprise four Generic Core Scales: Physical Functioning (8 items), Emotional Functioning (5 items), Social Functioning (5 items), and School Functioning (5 items). Two Summary Scores can be computed (the Psychosocial Health Summary Score and the Physical Health Summary Score), as well as a Total Scale Score. Scores range from 0-100, with higher scores indicating better quality of life.

Change in health care costsBaseline, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Parents will complete the Client Service Receipt Inventory (CSRI), a validated comprehensive inventory of health care services incurred due to the child's symptoms that uses a standard response timeframe of the past 6 months. In the CSRI, parents report on three sources of health care costs: direct medical service use, direct non-medical costs, and indirect costs. In order to better estimate costs, monetary values will be assigned to health resources use and productivity time loss data captured in the CSRI. All expenditures will be converted to 2023 dollars using the medical care component of the Consumer Price Index available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Costs will be aggregated across the three sources to derive total costs for analyses.

Change in pain catastrophizingBaseline, 4-6 weeks, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Parent self-report. Pain Catastrophizing Scale, is a 13-item measure that assesses catastrophizing thoughts or feelings accompanying the experience of pain. Respondents are asked to reflect on past painful experiences and to indicate the degree to which each of the 13 thoughts or feelings were experienced when in pain. Responses are from 0 (not at all) to 4 (all the time) with higher scores indicating higher levels of catastrophizing.

Change in positive and negative affectBaseline, 4-6 weeks, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Parent self-report. Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) is a widely used self-report measure that is made up of two mood scales. One 10-item scale measures positive affect and the other 10-item scale measures negative affect on a 5-point Likert scale. Scores range from 10-50 for each scale with higher scores indicating high levels of positive or negative affect.

Change in depressive symptomsBaseline, 4-6 weeks, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Parent self-report. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ2) includes 2 items inquiring about the degree to which an individual has experienced depressed mood and anhedonia over the past two weeks.

Change in parenting stressBaseline

Parent self-report. The Daily Parenting Hassles Scale is a 20-item scale that assesses parent burden in meeting the needs of their children and troublesome behavior of children. Subscales include challenging behavior and parenting tasks.

Change in anxietyBaseline, 4-6 weeks, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Parent self-report. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD2) is one of the most frequently used diagnostic self-report scales for screening, diagnosis and severity assessment of anxiety disorders in adults. The scale is based on two items which are scored from 0 to 3, with higher scores indicating greater anxiety symptoms.

Change in perceived social supportBaseline, 4-6 weeks, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Parent self-report. Perceived Social Support will be assessed using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). This scale consists of 12 items that measure the extent of social support received from 3 sources: friends, family, and significant others. Types of social support assessed by the MSPSS include emotional, tangible, informational, social network support, and esteem. Scores range from 12 to 84 with higher scores indicating greater social support.

Change in pain intensityBaseline, 4-6 weeks, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Parent proxy report and child self-report (ages 7+). The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Pain Intensity form includes three items assessing child's pain intensity in the past 7 days.

Change in somatic symptomsBaseline, 4-6 weeks, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Parent proxy report. The Children's Somatic Symptoms Inventory (CSSI-8) includes 8 items assessing the severity of a child's nonspecific somatic symptoms. The set of GI symptoms (pain, nausea, upset stomach) are used to measure GI symptom severity.

Change in abdominal pain symptomsBaseline, 4-6 weeks, 6 months post-intervention, 12 months post-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention

Parent proxy report. The ROME Functional Abdominal Pain questions include 5 items assessing ROME criteria for upper and lower functional abdominal pain - frequency, severity, location, and association with eating (lower only).

Treatment acceptability4-6 weeks

The TEI-SF is a 9-item measure that assesses treatment acceptability and satisfaction. Select items were adapted to be specific to a parenting prevention program (e.g., "I find this intervention to be an acceptable way of dealing with young children's health"). Items are rated on a 5-point scale (1 = 'strongly disagree', 5 = 'strongly agree') and summed to create a total score, with higher scores indicating higher acceptability and satisfaction.

Number of treatment contacts0-6 weeks

The administrative backend of the intervention programs has a tracking system for recording use of the program. Specifically, we will measure: 1) logins to the program, 2) completed treatment modules, and 3) completed assignments.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Seattle Children's Hospital

🇺🇸

Seattle, Washington, United States

© Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved by MedPath