Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health in Parenting (BEAM)
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18-65
SponsorUniversity of Calgary
About this trial
Postpartum (child age 0-5 years) mental health problems are common, with prevalence rates ranging from 15-20% for depression, 3-43% for anxiety, and approximately 30% for anger. Depression, anxiety, and anger often occur comorbidly. If left untreated, these disorders can be long-lasting and lead to child behaviour problems, brain changes, and risk for later mental illness. We developed an app-based treatment for parental mental illness: Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health in Parenting (BEAM). The BEAM program includes mental health and parenting videos, peer coaching, as well as a forum and drop-in Zoom sessions where parents can connect with each other to receive and provide social support. The program is supported by peer coaches (parents with lived experience of recovery from mental illness and who may have received emotion-focused parenting support) and supervised by clinically-trained staff. Peer coaches check-in with parents weekly to support their progress. Our study will see the BEAM app's effect on parent mental health, parenting stress, child behaviour, and child brain structure and function. 240 parents with high depression, anxiety, and/or anger symptoms will be recruited, with half forming the treatment-as-usual group.
Eligibility criteria
This trial does not accept healthy volunteersQualifiers
Parent is 18 years of age or older
Must have a child who is 3-4 years old
Must show clinically elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, &/or anger
Living in the Vancouver or Calgary area
Disqualifiers
Parent is under the age of 18
Does not show clinically elevated symptoms of depression, anxiety, and/or anger
History of attempted suicide or self-harm in the past 6 months
Does not live in the Vancouver or Calgary area
Trial design
Design model
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
Building Emotion Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM)
BehavioralBEAM is based on best-practices in telehealth and science-based program design principles aimed at promoting parental mental health and supportive parenting. The BEAM Program mobile application is designed and managed by MindSea. The weekly one-on-one check-ins with peer coaches (parents who previously participated in another research group-based mental health intervention) will use the secure videoconferencing platform Zoom (Healthcare license) and direct messaging through the BEAM app. Peer coaches will also engage with participants on the community peer support forum. Monthly drop-in group peer support sessions will be facilitated by peer coaches and/or mental health professionals on the BEAM research team. The BEAM program's content emphasizes self-compassion, effective communication practices, and building social support networks.
Treatment groups
240 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groupsGroup A: BEAM ProgramExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Group B: Treatment-As-UsualNo intervention 0 interventions
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Changes in parental mental health
Parent mental health will be a composite of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and anger. Depression symptoms will be measured via the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; scores range from 0-30 with higher score indicating more severe symptoms). Clinically elevated depressive symptoms will be identified with a cut-off of \>10. Anxiety symptoms will be measured via the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Anxiety short form (raw scores range from 7-35 with higher scores indicating more severe symptoms). Parent anger will be measured via PROMIS Anger (raw scores range from 5-25 with higher scores indicating more anger). T-score cut-offs of \>60 will be used to identify those with clinically elevated anger and anxiety symptoms. An aggregate variable for parent mental health symptoms will be computed by converting scores on the CES-D, PROMIS Anxiety, and PROMIS Anger to standardized z-scores and then taking their average.
Time frame
To be assessed pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 6-months post-interventionSecondary outcomes
1
Changes in parenting stress
The Parenting Stress Index (PSI) is a measure of parenting stress and interactional style. Scores range from 36-180; higher scores indicate greater parental stress.
Time frame
To be assessed pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 6-months post-intervention2
Changes in parent self-efficacy
The Me as a Parent Scale- Short Form (MaaPs-SF) is a 4-item measure that will be used to examine parenting self-efficacy. Scores can range from 4-20, with higher scores indicating greater self-efficacy.
Time frame
To be assessed pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 6-months post-intervention3
Changes in discipline practices
The Parenting Scale assesses the discipline practices of parents who have young children. The scores can range from 30-210; higher scores indicate more ineffective parenting discipline practices.
Time frame
To be assessed pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 6-months post-intervention4
Changes in relationship satisfaction
The Couple Satisfaction Index assesses relationship satisfaction. Scores can range from 0-21; higher scores indicate greater relationship satisfaction.
Time frame
To be assessed pre-intervention, immediately post-intervention, and 6-months post-interventionSponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
University of Calgary
Lead sponsor
University of British Columbia
Sponsor institution
Alberta Children's Hospital
Collaborator
Provincial Health Services Authority British Columbia
Collaborator
Brain Canada
Collaborator
MindSea Development
Collaborator
Workerbee.tv
Collaborator
Source ClinicalTrials.gov