Infant Psychiatry Home Visitation Program

Externalizing Behavior in Early Childhood: A Randomized Control Evaluation of a Home Visitation Program

This is a proposed home visitation program for families of children with externalizing behaviors who are on the wait list for psychiatric assessment at BC Children's hospital. The aim of this program is to implement and evaluate a home visitation strategy in order to support those waiting up to four months to consult a psychiatrist.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Aggression; Hyperactivity; Impulsive Behaviors
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Clinical home visitation

Detailed Description

The Home visitation program was developed in response to long wait lists for the Infant Psychiatry Program. This home visitation program intervention consists of the following components: Developmental guidance, empowerment of parents while respecting the parent-child attachment, and child centered interactional guidance. The home visitors ( a PhD student and a Masters level student) visit consenting families and gave the parents an opportunity to voice their concerns regarding their child's behaviors. They were instructed to co-construct a play that had to be child led. Home visitors facilitated this task. Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist and Parenting Stress Index prior to and after the intervention. These home visitations occurred approximately once a month whilst the families were on the wait list for clinical assessment and treatment. Those families that were randomized in control group did not receive any intervention.

Extended description of the protocol, including information not already contained in other fields.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 40
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • British Columbia
    • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6H 3N1
      • British Columbia Children's Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: No older than 6 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Children with externalizing disorders referred to Infant Psychiatry Clinic of Children's hospital and on the wait list

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children over 6 years old
• Children with internalizing disorder
• Families that reside outside of the Vancouver due to practicality of home visitation,
• Families requiring an interpreter

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Waitlist families; Experimental arm consisted of randomized waitlist families who received home visitation where mothers were taught to play with their children in a developmentally appropriate manner and also engaged in a co-construction task. Control arm families did not get any active intervention. Parents from both arm types completed pre and post questionnaires to measure child's externalizing behaviors and parenting stress. Parents from experimental group were encouraged to keep a diary of their play record.

Other: Clinical home visitation; Clinical Home visitation consisted of once a month visits to families on the experimental group. During those visits home visitors facilitated developmentally appropriate play guidance and co-construction tasks for the dyad.; Other Names: Home visiting; Externalizing disorders; Parenting stress

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Reduction of externalizing disorders and child's aggression	The specific units of measure to be assessed pre and post intervention are the mean scores of the CBCL (overall score, attention problems subscale, externalizing subscale, aggression subscale) and the PSI (overall score, parent distress sub scale, parent-child dysfunctional interaction, difficult child subscale).	Participants will be followed for the duration of their time on the Clinic's wait list, an expected average of 10 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Measurement of parental stress	Measurement of parental stress after the intervention was offered	Participants will be followed for the duration of their time on the Clinic's wait list, an expected average of 10 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of British Columbia
• Collaborators: British Columbia Childrens Hospital Foundation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Pratibha Reebye, University of British Columbia

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: April 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2010
• Study Completion (Actual): February 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 24, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 30, 2011
• First Posted (Estimate): December 1, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): December 1, 2011
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: November 30, 2011
• Last Verified: November 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Randomized; Home visitation; Parenting stress; Externalizing disorder; Childhood externalizing disorders; Positional defiant
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Aggression; Impulsive Behavior
• Other Study ID Numbers: H08-02992