Authors (including presenting author) :
Ms. Wong IWY (1), Dr. Chung JPY (2), Dr. Chong HC (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Comprehensive Child Development Service, Clinical Psychology Service, Kwai Chung Hospital
(2) Comprehensive Child Development Service, Department of Psychiatry, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital
Introduction :
Maternal depression is well documented to have significant negative impacts on child development, which is mediated by disengaged or hostile parenting practices. There is a general consensus within literature that treatment on maternal depression alone is insufficient to improve parent-child relationship. Therefore, parenting intervention targets at enhancing parenting skills for depressed mothers would help to promote child development and hence prevent the intergenerational transmission of depression. There are two major streams of parenting programmes commonly delivered to mothers with preschoolers, i.e. the behavioral-based parenting approach and relationship-based parenting approach. TIK is an evidenced-based, relationship-based parenting programme for helping parents to respond to and teach their children about emotions, practise emotion coaching responses, and simultaneously enhance parent-child relationship. The aim of the current study is to examine the effectiveness of the Tuning in to Kids (TIK) parenting programme on depressed mothers.
Objectives :
This was a pilot intervention program to examine the treatment effectiveness of an emotion-focused parenting programme for mothers with postnatal depression who also had parenting difficulties.
Methodology :
Participants were mothers receiving psychiatric service of CCDS who 1) had a principal diagnosis of postnatal depression or adjustment disorder with depressive features, and 2) encountered parenting problem of a toddler aged two to five. The sample consisted of 23 participants from three treatment groups conducted from October 2017 to November 2018 in CCDS clinics in KCH and PYNEH. It was a six-session weekly programme with an average of 6 to 10 women per group. TIK was an emotion coaching parenting programme developed in Australia, which helped parents to teach their children how to understand and regulate their emotions and develop emotional competence. It emphasized role-plays in practising emotion coaching skills within sessions. The groups were run by a clinical psychologist who was trained as certified TIK group facilitator. Outcome measures included Parenting Stress Scale (PSS), Parenting Sense of Competence Scale (PSOC), and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS). Participants also completed an evaluation form for TIK group.
Result & Outcome :
From October 2017 to November 2018, 23 mothers from CCDS psychiatric clinics of KCH and PYNEH were recruited to receive the TIK programme and 11 of them completed pre-post measures. Descriptive results revealed a reduction in depression, anxiety and stress level in 8 out of 11 mothers (Pre-mean=57.09, SD=21.34; Post-mean=49.09, SD=24.37). In addition, 8 out of 11 mothers showed reduction in parenting stress (Pre-mean: 64.18, SD=13.51; Post-mean=59.82, SD=13.81). Among 5 out of 9 mothers reported increased sense of parenting competence (Pre-mean= 48.44, SD=6.39; Post-mean=50.00, SD=7.79). In the TIK evaluation form, most of the participants reported that the ways they learnt how to coach children’s emotions in return helped to regulate their own negative emotions and they found the role-play exercises very helpful. Conclusions:
The present results provide preliminary support for the benefits of providing emotion-focused parenting programme for women with postnatal depression in the local setting, in terms of mood enhancement, reduction in parenting stress and increased sense of parenting competence. Depressed mothers who felt more competent to coach children’s emotions also learnt to regulate their own negative emotions. Relationship-based parenting programme should be considered as another essential component in parenting training in addition to behavioral-based parenting programme in view of the encouraging results.
Co-location with:
