Proposed Topic (Most preferred): :
Clinical Safety and Quality Service I (Projects aiming to improve efficiency and effectiveness of care delivery to meet international standards)
Proposed Topic (Second preferred): :
Clinical Safety and Quality Service III (Projects aiming at quality service to patients and their carers)
Authors (including presenting author) :
Wong SY
Affiliation :
(1) Department of Clinical Psychology, United Christian Hospital, Kowloon East Cluster
Introduction :
Internalizing disorders, including anxiety and depression, are prevalent during
adolescence. While individual psychotherapy is recommended as the primary treatment, its effects on adolescents are modest. Emotion competence is linked to anxiety and depression in adolescents, those who struggle with internalizing problems often have deficits in emotion competence. Based on emotion socialization theory, youth emotion competence can be impacted by emotion socialization parenting practices. These practices, in turn, are influenced by parent’s emotion regulation, mental health, and family emotion climate. The current study evaluated the effectiveness and mechanisms of change of the Tuning in to Teens (TINT)
parenting program in reducing youth internalizing symptoms.
Objectives :
In the present thesis, there were two objectives. First of all, the effectiveness of a culturally adapted TINT parenting program in treating internalizing psychopathology for clinical population in Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong was examined. Its effectiveness in improving parent emotion regulation, parent emotion socialization practices, and youth emotional competence were also evaluated. Another objective was to understand the underlying mechanisms by which the TINT program reduces internalizing symptoms in
Chinese adolescents.
Methodology :
Study 1 used a randomized controlled design, recruiting participants from local hospitals and randomly assigning them to intervention and waitlist control groups. Parents in the intervention group received a 6-session program that focused on parent emotional competence and emotion socialization parenting practices. Data were collected from 81 parent and adolescent dyads at baseline, immediate post-group, and 3-month post-group. Mechanism of change were evaluated by mediation analyses.
Study 2 extended Study 1 and examined other parent emotion socialization variables that may influence youth anxiety and depression through youth emotional competence. Data were collected from 162 Chinese parents. Mediation/correlation analyses were adopted.
Result & Outcome :
For study 1, Our results supported the hypothesis that TINT significantly improved youth internalizing symptoms for the intervention group in 3 months’ time. Nevertheless, the hypothesized pathways that TINT would influence emotion socialization parenting practice through parent emotional competence, and TINT would reduce youth internalizing symptoms through emotion socialization parenting practices were not supported. Meanwhile, TINT had an impact on youth internalizing symptoms through changes in youth emotional competence.
For study 2, the results supported our hypotheses that parental depression, parental anxiety, parental stress, and family conflict were significant predictors of youth emotional competence. The research findings support the use of emotion-focused parenting program to improve youth internalizing psychopathology in Hong Kong.
