Efficacy of Emotion-Focused Parenting Programs for Children's Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms: A Randomized...

Area of Science:

• Child and Adolescent Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Family Therapy

Background:

• Emotion-Focused Skills Training (EFST) is a 12-week parental program designed to address mental health challenges in children and adolescents.
• The program is rooted in Emotion-Focused Therapy principles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of two distinct EFST program versions: an experiential condition and a psychoeducational-only condition.
• To assess the impact of EFST on externalizing and internalizing symptoms in youth.

Main Methods:

• A randomized clinical dismantling study involving 236 parents and their children/adolescents (ages 6-13).
• Participants were assigned to either an experiential EFST group or a psychoeducational-only EFST group.
• Outcomes were measured using parent and teacher-reported symptom data at baseline, posttreatment, and 4-, 8-, and 12-month follow-ups, analyzed with multilevel growth curve modeling.

Main Results:

• EFST significantly reduced parent-reported externalizing and internalizing symptoms, and teacher-reported externalizing symptoms.
• No significant differences were found between the experiential and psychoeducational-only EFST conditions in multilevel analyses.
• A Bayesian analysis suggested a potential advantage for the experiential condition.

Conclusions:

• EFST is an effective transdiagnostic parental intervention for reducing internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children and adolescents.
• The positive outcomes of EFST were sustained for up to 12 months post-intervention.
• EFST supports early intervention for youth mental health problems.