Abstract
BackgroundThe demands of daily life often cause mothers high levels of distress and other negative emotions. Anger, including harsh verbal discipline, has been linked to child maltreatment, with long-term adverse effects on a child’s well-being. It is critically important to teach mothers stress management and emotion regulation in addition to parenting skills, but this is yet to be conducted in a formalized manner. Strengthening the multiple protective factors that constitute resilience helps reduce distress. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a resilience-enhancement program for mothers.MethodsWe designed a two-arm, parallel, randomized trial with an active control. Mothers and their partners with children between three and six years old will be recruited. Following an online baseline survey, 140 mothers will be randomly allocated to either an intervention or control group. Self-report assessment will be conducted online post-intervention and at a two-month follow-up. The control group will participate in a serious of group discussions. The intervention group will participate in four bi-weekly 120-min sessions of a Cognitive Behavior Therapy-based program designed to enhance resilience, focusing on emotion regulation through cognitive reappraisal. Participants will be encouraged to apply and share the skills they acquire with their partner and children at home. Partners will also be assessed to explore their indirect influence from the mothers. Intention-to-treat analysis will be conducted and the two groups will be compared, applying covariate analysis. The primary outcome of the intervention is improved resilience. Secondary outcomes include improved anger control, self-esteem, cognition of children’s misbehavior, and reduced parental stress.DiscussionTo the best of our knowledge, this study will evaluate the first resilience-enhancement program focused on emotion regulation for mothers in Japan. It will contribute to the existing body of knowledge on building emotional resilience. If the program is found to be effective, it will provide an alternative means to enhance mothers’ resilience against stress and improve their ability to regulate emotion. In so doing, it will offer a way to prevent child maltreatment and protect the mental health of children and families.Trial registrationUMIN000027232, May 3, 2017.
Highlights
The demands of daily life often cause mothers high levels of distress and other negative emotions
This paper describes the study protocol of a randomized controlled trial of a resilience-enhancement program for mothers, focused on emotion regulation
In contrast to previous parenting programs, which focus on teaching appropriate parenting skills, the novelty of this trial lies in its utilization of a Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)-based resilience-enhancement program for mothers for the purpose of the prevention of child-maltreatment
Summary
The demands of daily life often cause mothers high levels of distress and other negative emotions. Anger, including harsh verbal discipline, has been linked to child maltreatment, with long-term adverse effects on a child’s well-being. The most frequently reported parental stress response emotion among Japanese mothers with children older than 18 months is anger and irritation, more often than anxiety and depression [5, 6]. Among Japanese mothers of three-year-olds, 62.2% had angry outbursts toward their children in times of stress; of these, 86.7% had resorted to harsh verbal discipline [7]. Harsh verbal discipline has long-term, adverse effects on children’s well-being [8]. Parents’ harsh verbal discipline has been associated with adolescent conduct problems and depressive symptoms; maternal and paternal warmth did not moderate their longitudinal associations [11]. There is, an urgent need to support parents in decreasing parental stress and, child maltreatment
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