The effects of emotion-focused skills training on parental mental health, emotion regulation and self-efficacy: Mediating processes between parents and children

Abstract

Objective: Emotion-Focused Skills Training (EFST) is a short-term parental intervention based on humanistic principles. While studies have demonstrated the efficacy of EFST in alleviating child mental health symptoms, the mechanisms by which this happens is less clear. The present study investigated whether program participation led to improvements in the parents’ own mental health, emotion regulation, and self-efficacy, and compared two versions of EFST: one experiential involving evocative techniques, and one psychoeducational involving didactic teaching of skills. Further, this study investigated whether improvements in parent outcomes mediated the effects on children’s mental health. All parents received 2-days group training and 6 h of individual supervision. Methods: 313 parents (M age = 40.5, 75.1% mothers) of 236 children (ages 6–13, 60.6% boys) with mental health difficulties within the clinical range and their teachers (N = 113, 82% female) were included. Participants were assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and 4-, 8- and 12-months follow-up. Results: Multilevel analysis showed significant improvements over time on all parental outcomes with large effects (d range0.6–1.1, ps < .001), with fathers benefitting more in terms of emotion regulation and self-efficacy (ps < .05). Significant differences were found between conditions on parental mental health and self-efficacy (all p’s > .05). Cross-lagged panel models showed indirect effects of child symptoms at post-intervention on all parental outcomes at 12-months follow-up (β range0.30–0.59, ps < .05). Bidirectional associations were observed between children’s mental health symptoms and parental self-efficacy (β range0.13–0.30, ps < .05). Conclusion: This study provides support for the effect of EFST on parent outcomes and the reciprocal relationship between the mental health of children’s and their parents. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03807336.