Stepping Together for Children After Trauma (ST-CT): Feasibility and Predictors of Outcome of a Parent-led, Therapist Assisted Treatment

Abstract

Stepping Together for Children after Trauma (ST-CT) is the first step of the promising intervention Stepped Care CBT for Children after Trauma. In ST-CT, the task of leading treatment is partially shifted to the parents, and the child and parent work together to complete therapeutic tasks from a workbook with therapist supervision. We aimed to investigate the feasibility of ST-CT in Norwegian first line services and explore child factors predicting outcome. Eighty-two children (mean age 9.9 years, 56% girls) participated. Feasibility was defined by treatment completion, reductions of child posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) mid- and post-treatment, and client treatment satisfaction. Predictors included child baseline PTSS, depressive symptoms, posttraumatic cognitions, externalizing symptoms, number of different traumatic events, and type of trauma. Results showed that rates of completion (78.0%) and response (81% of completers/59.8% intention-to-treat) were comparable to previous studies by the ST-CT developer. Overall treatment effect was d = 2.46 and client treatment satisfaction was high (mean score child: 8.3, parent: 9.0, on a scale from 0 – 10). Higher baseline PTSS and depressive symptoms predicted poorer outcome at both mid- and post-treatment, while more posttraumatic cognitions, and exposure to interpersonal trauma predicted poorer outcome at mid-treatment only. These associations were no longer significant in the fully adjusted models. In conclusion, ST-CT shows promise as an effective first line treatment in this new context, with two of three children responding to the treatment. Baseline PTSS, depression, post-traumatic cognitions and type of trauma may be related to outcomes and should be explored further. (Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04073862. Retrospectively registered June 3rd 2019, first patient recruited May 19th 2019).