Effectiveness of a Web-Based Intervention on Parental Psychological Flexibility and Emotion Regulation: A Pilot Open Trial.

Juan M Flujas-Contreras,Inmaculada Gómez,Azucena García-Palacios

doi:10.3390/ijerph18062958

Abstract

“Parenting Forest” is an informed contextual therapy parenting program for improving parental emotion regulation strategies and psychological flexibility. The aim of this study was to evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of a self-guided web-based intervention of the Parenting Forest program. The intervention program consists of six self-applied sequential modules that use strategies from contextual therapies for providing a parenting style open to experience, mindful and committed to its actions. A pilot controlled open trial was conducted. Eligible parents (n = 12) enrolled in the web-based intervention completed baseline (T1) and post-intervention (T2) assessment instruments. Parental psychological flexibility, avoidance, emotional regulation, parental stress, satisfaction with life, children’s psychological adjustment and client satisfaction were measured to assess the effects of the intervention. Mood, coping, and value-related actions were assessed as measures of progress. The results showed positive effects on the parents’ psychological flexibility and emotion regulation. Parents’ mood and coping skills improved throughout the intervention program. These results provide preliminary evidence of the web-based Parenting Forest’s efficacy, although further research is needed to assess its effectiveness for prevention and in clinical populations.

Highlights

Published: 13 March 2021Parental practices have been shown to have a protective effect on family problems and their children’s psychological adjustment
Parental psychological flexibility is defined as the ability to be fully aware of the emotions and thoughts related to childcare, taking them in perspective, and redirecting behavior into parenting practices in line with values [8]
The results of the present pilot study suggest that the web-based parenting intervention is an alternative with positive effects on the main change variables

Summary

Introduction

Published: 13 March 2021Parental practices have been shown to have a protective effect on family problems and their children’s psychological adjustment. Undemocratic parenting styles can lead to internalizing and externalizing problems and less prosocial behavior in childhood [1,2]. Authoritarian and controlling parental styles are risk factors for bullying [3], internalizing problems [4], anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation [5]. Parental stress has been shown to be a mediator of child behavioral problems [6] and leads to worse parenting practices related to psychological inflexibility [7]. Experiential avoidance responses have been associated with problems of anxiety [9], stress [10], depression and family conflict [11] in both children and parents. Psychological inflexibility in parenting practices can lead to dysfunctional reactions or interactions as a result of cognitive fusion and avoidance of the emotional distress associated with parenting, i.e., avoiding children’s reactions, overprotective or impulsive parental reactions that occur

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