Child-Parent Psychotherapy for Preschooler Witnesses of Domestic Violence Program

September 17, 2013 updated by: University of California, San Francisco

Preschooler Witnesses of Domestic Violence: A Preventive Intervention Program

This study will examine the efficacy of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) for the treatment of preschoolers exposed to marital violence.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study examines the efficacy of Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) for the treatment of preschoolers exposed to marital violence. Multi-ethnic preschool-mother dyads from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds were randomly assigned to CPP or to a case management plus community referral for individual treatment comparison group. It was hypothesized the children who received CPP treatment would show significantly greater improvement in general symptomatology and in traumatic stress symptoms than those in the comparison group.

There is growing recognition that, contrary to the long-standing assumption that young children are impervious to environmental stresses, preschoolers exposed to violence show increased rates of disturbances in self-regulation and in emotional, social and cognitive functioning (Osofsky, 2004; Pynoos et al., 1999; van der Kolk, 2003). The present study examines the efficacy of a relationship-based treatment approach involving the child and the mother. Dyads were randomly assigned to either the Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) treatment group or to a comparison group that consisted of monthly case management by an experienced Ph.D.-level clinician plus referrals for individual treatment in the community for mothers and child. We hypothesized that Child-Parent Psychotherapy would be more effective in alleviating children's traumatic stress symptoms and behavior problems because it focuses on improving the quality of the child-mother relationship and engages the mother as the child's ally in coping with the trauma. Treatment was offered for 50 weeks.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment

60

Phase

  • Phase 3

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • San Francisco, California, United States, 94110
        • Child Trauma Research Project

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

3 years to 6 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • child 3-5 years old
  • child exposed to marital violence as confirmed by mother's report on the Conflict Tactics Scale 2 (Straus et al., 1996)
  • perpetrator was not living in the home.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • mother's documented abuse of the target child
  • current maternal substance abuse
  • homelessness
  • maternal mental retardation
  • maternal psychosis
  • child mental retardation or autistic-spectrum disorder

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Child symptomatology (CBCL)
Traumatic stress symptomatology (DC 0-3 Traumatic Stress Disorder)
Parent-Child Relationship at posttreatment and 6 month follow-up.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Maternal symptomatology (Symptom Checklist Revised and Clinician Administered PTSD Scale)
Child cognitive functioning (WPPSI-R)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of California, San Francisco

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Alicia F. Lieberman, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 1996

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2004

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2004

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 14, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 14, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

September 16, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 19, 2013

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 17, 2013

Last Verified

September 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • R21MH059661 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • IRB #HR 793-12912-06

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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