Single Session Consultation for Parents

Single Session Consultation for Parents

Single-Session Consultation (SSC) is a rapidly provided, low-intensity, goal-directed counseling service used for treatment of diverse mental health problems. Research on SSC suggests that, for some clients, a single session of counseling (60 minutes) may help reduce clinical distress.

Despite its benefits, SSC has yet to be evaluated as an alternative for parents (18+) of school-age children (5-12 years old) in the United States with elevated stress levels.

The current research aims to evaluate SSC's feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy as an intervention for this population.

First, perceived acceptability (i.e., parents' participation and successful completion, reschedules, and/or cancellations), usefulness, and client satisfaction will be examined. The investigators will also evaluate whether mechanisms of change (e.g, hope, agency), parental (e.g, stress, mental health), and child (e.g, behavior) outcomes, are improved following the SSC.

The investigators expect SSC to be acceptable, for clients to find SSC to be useful, to be satisfied, and experience an increase in hope and agency after the SSC and hypothesize a reduction in stress levels and improvement in mental health among parents. However, the investigators believe behavior outcomes for the child will remain unchanged.

The investigators will recruit parents via online advertisement on social media. Potential participants will complete a screener through Qualtrics to determine eligibility, which includes location in the United States, age (18+), child's age (5-12 years old), preferred language, child's legal guardianship, technology access, and stress levels. Once eligible, participants will provide consent and make an appointment for their SSC.

The 60-minutes-session will be conducted using HIPAA complaint NYU Zoom with Study Consultants. Parents will complete assessments of parental stress, parental mental health, and child behavior to assess mechanisms (i.e., hope, agency) outcomes and measures of usefulness and satisfaction prior and post the SSC, and another 2-week follow-up questionnaire to monitor progress.

Sessions will be recorded for supervision and treatment fidelity purposes. Upon completion, parents will receive an Action Plan, a written record of the discussion, recommendations, and resources.

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Adult parents (18+ years old) who are legal guardians of their school-age children (5 to 12 years old)
2. Must have elevated stress levels based on validated measures obtained through parent self-report
3. Parent must reside in the United States
4. Must be English dominant
5. Can access video-based Zoom conference

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Parent has significant cognitive delays that prohibit involvement in SSC
2. Parent expresses significant personal mental health challenges/child abuse during SSC that warrant immediate discontinuation from SSC.