Examine the Feasibility and Acceptability of Project Support

A Brief Intervention to Enhance Supportive Parenting and Treatment Engagement Among Families Waiting for Trauma-Focused Services

In this study, the investigators will conduct a proof-of-concept pilot trial of delivering the Project Support Positive Parenting Module (Project Support) to n = 30 families waiting for trauma-focused services. Investigators hypothesize that Project Support will be feasible and acceptable as evidenced by benchmarks for recruitment, retention at post assessment, engagement, fidelity, and program satisfaction. Investigators will also explore trends on caregiver emotional support, parenting self-efficacy, and child mental health symptoms.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Parent-Child Relations; Parenting; Child Mental Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Project Support

Detailed Description

Over two-thirds of children experience traumatic events such as child maltreatment, violence, or sudden or violent loss. Many of these children sustain significant emotional and developmental difficulties including trauma symptoms, aggression, and suicidality. Emotional support from a caregiver is theorized to buffer against the effects of trauma; however, many caregivers lack the self-efficacy and skills to effectively support their child, or struggle to apply these skills during the stressful time following trauma. Unfortunately, programs designed for caregivers following child trauma are scarce. Existing interventions are lengthy (lasting 8-20 sessions) and result in families placed on long waitlists. This proposal asserts the adverse effects of child trauma can be interrupted though a brief intervention (the Project Support Positive Parenting Module) that enhances supportive parenting - delivered via telehealth to families on waitlists for trauma-focused services. In this study, Investigators will conduct a proof-of-concept pilot trial with n = 30 families waiting for trauma-focused services. Investigators hypothesize that Project Support will be feasible and acceptable as evidenced by benchmarks for recruitment, retention at post assessment, engagement, fidelity, and program satisfaction. Investigators will also explore trends on caregiver emotional support, parenting self-efficacy, and child mental health symptoms. Long-term, this research will generate an effective intervention that addresses the needs of families affected by trauma, which can be scaled up to address other public health epidemics that impede supportive parenting and child development.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 32
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • South Carolina
    • Charleston, South Carolina, United States, 29425
      • National Crime Victims Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Family is seeking trauma-focused services for their child as measured by their placement on the waitlist for services at the National Crime Victims Center;
• Child is between 5 - 12 years old;
• Caregiver agreed to be contacted for volunteer research opportunities;
• Caregiver and child can communicate in either English or Spanish;
• Child has been living with caregiver for at the last 6 months or longer;
• Family is able to participate in services delivered via telehealth.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Child or caregiver has a diagnosis that would impair their ability to participate in or benefit from services (e.g., traumatic brain injury, developmental disability, psychosis);
• Child is in Foster Care or Department of Social Services custody;
• The caregiver is unwilling or unable to give informed consent and/or the child is unwilling and unable to give assent.

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: Project Support; All dyads (caregivers and their child) will receive the Project Support intervention over the course of 4-6 weeks.

Behavioral: Project Support; Caregivers will receive up to four, 60- to 90-minute sessions focused on teaching two parenting skills - attentive listening and comforting. Attentive listening involves providing accurate and timely responses to show interest and keep the child engaged until they are ready to end the conversation. Comforting involves using the same attentive listening skills when the child is upset or distressed. Effective mastery of the listening and comforting skills also requires caregivers to withhold any non-listening or non-comforting responses (e.g., interruptions, criticisms). The program is individually tailored such that caregivers with stronger skills could complete the program in less time (i.e., fewer sessions). Service providers educate caregivers about the skills, then engage in an iterative process of modeling the skills, engaging the caregivers in behavioral practice, and providing tailored, supportive feedback to help caregivers gain mastery.; Other Names: Project Support Positive Parenting Module

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Supportive Parenting Assessed by the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire	Supportive Parenting scale includes 3 items (e.g,. "you praise your child if he/she behaves well") made on a 5-point scale (0 = never, 1 = almost never, 2 = sometime, 3 = often, 4 = always). Scale ranges from 0 to 12. Item responses are summed. Higher scores indicate a better outcome of more supportive parenting.	Baseline to Post-test (6 weeks)
Parenting Self-efficacy Assessed by the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale	Parenting self-efficacy subscale includes 8 items (e.g., "If anyone can find the answer to what is troubling my child, I am the one") made on a 6-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree). Scale ranges from 8 to 48. Item responses are summed. Higher scores indicate better outcome of greater parenting self-efficacy.	Baseline to Post-test (6 weeks)
Hopefulness Assessed by the Beck Hopelessness Scale-4	The Beck Hopelessness Scale-4 includes 4 items measuring hopelessness (e.g., "I feel the future is hopeless and that things cannot improve") made on a 4-point scale (0 = not typical, 1 = rarely typical, 2 = typical, 3 = very typical). Scale ranges from 0 to 12. Item responses are summed. Higher scores indicate worse outcomes in that they represent a higher degree of hopelessness.	Baseline to Post-test (6 weeks)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Child Psychological Distress Assessed by the Pediatric Symptom Checklist	The total problems scale on the Pediatric Symptom Checklist includes 17 items measuring child psychological distress (e.g., "Feels sad, unhappy") made on a 3-point scale (0 = never, 1 = sometimes, 2 = often). Scale ranges from 0 to 34. Item responses are summed. Higher scores indicate worse outcomes in that they represent higher psychological distress.	Baseline to Post-test (6 weeks)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Medical University of South Carolina
• Collaborators: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Caitlin Rancher, PhD, Medical University of South Carolina

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 2, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 3, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): June 3, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 22, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 25, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): April 30, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 15, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 17, 2026
• Last Verified: June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Non-offending caregiver; Child trauma
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Neurodevelopmental Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: Pro00136524; K99HD111677 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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