Empowering Parental Caregivers

Empowering Parental Caregivers: A Virtual Support Group With Problem Solving Training for Parents/Guardians of Children With SCI/D

The goal of this clinical trial was to learn about the feasibility and pilot outcome measures in caregivers of children with spinal cord injury who completed a 7-week problem-solving training web-based group. The main question it aims to answer is: What is the feasibility of a seven-week, occupational therapist-facilitated, web-based support group with problem-solving training for parental caregivers of children with SCI?

Participants participated 1 time a week for seven weeks in a web-based group group:

• learning about the FOCUS problem-solving model
• applying positive coping and problem-solving strategies to current issues.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Caregivers
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: web-based group problem solving and coping training

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 5
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • District of Columbia
    • Washington, District of Columbia, United States, 20010
      • United Spinal Association

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• one must be a parent or guardian of a child with a spinal cord injury or disorder, be that child's primary caregiver, and be 18 years or older.

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• 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: Single Group Intervention; 7-week web-based group with problem solving training

Behavioral: web-based group problem solving and coping training; The group included one-hour, weekly Zoom sessions, that were facilitated by an occupational therapy doctoral candidate (first author) for 7 consecutive weeks. During the first session, the candidate explained adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies and asked each participant to identify one adaptive coping strategy that they currently use and will continue to use in the future. The candidate then explained the FOCUS problem-solving approach. For each session afterward, the candidate presented a topic-related scenario for parents to identify an effective solution using the FOCUS steps (APA, 2011). Parent-chosen topics included recreation, assistive technology, motivating and advocating, physical activity, skin integrity, and adaptive fashion. The general process of the meetings is presented in Figure 1. After every meeting the candidate sent out a summary of resources that were discussed during the meeting, ultimately putting them all together in an "Empowering Caregiver Guide."

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Brief COPE	The Brief COPE is a 28-item self-report measure that determines the participants' styles of coping (Carver,1997).	Before the group began, 7 weeks after start of group
Caregiver Self-Assessment Questionnaire	The Caregiver Self-Assessment Questionnaire is a brief, 18-question self-assessment that asks respondents to consider the impact of caregiving on their stress levels, physical body, and mental health (American Society for Geriatrics, 2015).	Before the group began 7 weeks after start of group
Knowledge Check	The Knowledge Check was a measure developed by the research team with guidance from Obst and Porter's guide for school personnel (n.d.). The research team generated the items around three themes: general SCI knowledge, FOCUS problem-solving skills, and coping knowledge.	Before the group began 7 weeks after start of group

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Attendance	number of sessions attended	across the 7 weeks of the group
Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8)	The CSQ-8 is an eight-item standardized questionnaire that aims to understand the participants' general satisfaction with the sessions, developed by Attkisson & Greenfield (2004). It is a highly effective tool to measure client satisfaction with program contents and has high internal consistency (Attkisson & Greenfield, 2004).	at the end of the 7 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Duquesne University
• Investigators: Study Chair: Elena Donoso Brown, PhD, Duquesne University; Principal Investigator: Elena Martino, BS, Duquesne University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 6, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 25, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): August 9, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: November 30, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 7, 2023
• First Posted (Estimated): December 18, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): December 18, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 7, 2023
• Last Verified: November 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 2023/04/8

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No