Dual-Generation Treatments: Addressing Parent Mental Health in Parenting and Child-Focused Prevention and Intervention Programs

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Parental mental health disorders are a risk factor for the development of child mental health problems, with an estimated 12% of child mental health disorders attributable to parental psychopathology (McLaughlin et al., 2012). Parent mental health is also a key moderator of parent training treatment effects on parenting and children’s mental health, with greater parental symptom severity linked to poorer treatment outcomes (Reyno & McGrath, 2006). Dual-generation treatment approaches that address both parent and child mental health are a promising approach to preventing the intergenerational transmission of psychopathology. Intervention development in this area would benefit from greater coordination and discussion among researchers and treatment developers.

This symposium presents four clinical trial treatment studies from distinct groups (American University, two studies from University of Oregon, and Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany) that all focus on development of dual-generation treatments for families in which a parent has psychopathology. All papers will detail their approach to integrating parent and child-focused targets of intervention, describe the target population, and overview their results. The symposium will highlight various treatment approaches (group vs individual, psychotherapy vs medication, traditional vs app-based) across a range of parent mental health diagnoses (ADHD, depression, substance misuse, emotion dysregulation), children’s developmental periods (from toddlerhood to adolescence) and outcomes (e.g. child behavior, onset of child depression, child emotion regulation, parenting quality, treatment implementation). The open discussion will address key challenges to dual-generation treatment development, and identify greater areas of collaboration among presenters and attendees to further advance these efforts.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chair

• Yoel Everett, University of Oregon

Individual Presentations

• Designing an Intervention for Parents with ADHD and Their Children - Presenting Author: Nicole Elise Lorenzo, American University; Joyce Hoi Ling Lui; Donna Marschall; Christina Danko; Mark Stein; Andrea Chronis-Tuscano, University of Maryland, College Park

• The Family Check-Up Online: Increasing Access to Parenting Support for Parents Experiencing Mental Health Challenges - Presenting Author: Kate Hails, University of Oregon; Beth Stormshak, University of Oregon

• Prevention of Depression in Children and Adolescents of Parents with Depression: a Randomized Controlled Trial - Presenting Author: Johanna Löchner; Belinda Platt; Kornelija Starman-Wöhrle; Keisuke Takano; Lina Engelmann; Alessandra Voggt; Fabian Loy; Mirjam Bley; Dana Winogradow; Stephanie Hämmerle; Esther Neumeier; Inga Wermuth; Katharina Schmitt; Frans Oort, University of Amsterdam; Gerd Schulte-Körne

• A Case Study on Integrating DBT Skills and Parent Training for Emotionally Dysregulated Parent-Child Dyads - Presenting Author: Yoel Everett, University of Oregon; April Lightcap; Jacqueline O'Brien, University of Oregon; Netanel Weinstein; Maureen Zalewski, University of Oregon