Navigator ACT-Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-group Treatment for Distressed and Stressed Parents of Children With Disabilities

Navigator ACT group treatment is a novel, manual-based, transdiagnostic group treatment developed in Habilitation and Health, the disability services in the region Stockholm. The treatment consists of 5 sessions (each 3.5 hours), and is developed to address stress and distress in parents raising a child with disability. The aims of the several studies included in this project is to examine the feasibility and effectiveness/efficacy of the manual-based Navigator ACT group treatment in the Swedish habilitation services context. The guestions we ask are; Is the Navigator ACT a feasible treatment? Is it effective in (a) improving parental psychological flexibility/experiential acceptance (b) increasing mindfulness (c) reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety (d) reducing parenting stress (e) reducing parent-reported difficulties (e.g., behavioral problems) of children with disability.

FAS 1: The feasibility study is conducted in 7 disability service clinics in Stockholm and Uppsala, Sweden.The feasibility of Navigator ACT in the disability services context is measured by attendance, that is: parents participating in at least 4 out of 5 sessions are considered as completers. The parent and treatment provider satisfaction is measured by session- and course evaluations. Both parents and group leaders treatment credibility and expectancy is measured as well. Five self-rating questionnaires are used to measure efficacy: The Mindfulness Awareness Attention Scale (MAAS), Parental Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (PAAQ) Parental Stress Scale (PSS) Hospital Anxiety and depression scale (HADS), The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Self-rating questionnaires are administered to parents at the baseline (0-2 weeks before the treatment start, T1), at the end of the treatment (0-2 weeks after, T2) and at the follow-up (3-4 months after the end of the treatment, T3). The data will be analyzed from baseline T1 to T2 (post treatment) as well as from T1 (baseline) to T3 (follow-up) with separate series of repeated measures ANOVA between-group.

FAS 2: Psychometric evaluation of the Parental Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (PAAQ).

FAS 2. The pragmatic multicenter RCT will be conducted in four regions of Sweden. Parents participating in the study have their children (0-17 years) currently enrolled in the disability services (experiment group n=42, control group n=42, totaling at least 84 parents, with the power calculation for medium large effect of 90% ES=0.50). To balance for attrition approximately 100 parents will be included in the study. The participants will be block randomized in several blocks. The experiment group will be receiving Navigator ACT treatment directly after the randomizing procedure, the control group approximately six months after. The parents in the control group fill the efficacy-related self-rating forms at the same measuring points as the parents in the experiment group as well during their own group process. The differences between the experiment and control groups will be analyzed by mixed-model linear regression.

FAS4: The aim of this study is reveal which parents get the most benefit of the Navigator ACT treatment, and what factors predict treatment competition vs. attrition. An additional aim is to investigate what treatment specific ACT processes mediate the treatment outcomes.