Tuning in to Kids® for Parents of Preschool-aged Children in Portugal

Promoting Parental and Child Mental Health Through Emotion-focused Parenting Programs: Adaptation, Implementation, and Evaluation of Tuning in to Kids® in Portugal

Early parent-child interactions, namely how parents respond to their children's emotions (i.e., emotion socialization parenting practices [ESPP]), may play a critical role in how children develop emotion regulation abilities. When parents rely on unsupportive ESPP, this can result in regulatory problems, which are a transdiagnostic symptom of MH problems, being a major cause of its etiology. Emotion-focused parenting programs, such as Tuning in to Kids® (TIK), promote parents' emotion coaching skills, enabling children to understand and regulate their emotions in more effective ways, while also supporting parents in managing their own emotions.

This study aims to examine the feasibility, acceptability, implementation fidelity and efficacy of the TIK program among parents of preschool-aged children in Portugal. TIK is a 6-week group, face-to-face program grounded in the principles of emotion coaching, among other theoretical backgrounds such as Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation Theories.

This trial is a parallel two-arm randomized clinical trial. Participants will be parents/legal guardians (> 18 years old) with at least one child between 3 and 6 years old and with proficiency in portuguese. At least 152 parents/legal guardians will be recruited with the support of several community partners. Interested parents will be contacted by telephone to confirm their eligibility. Participants will be informed about their eligibility during the intake interview, followed by a full explanation of the clinical trial procedures. Eligible participants will be randomly assigned to either the intervention group (TIK) or a waitlist control group, with the latter receiving the intervention after the follow-up assessment. The intervention consists of six weekly in-person group sessions plus one follow-up session, each lasting approximately 2 hours. Participants in both groups will complete questionnaires at three time points - baseline, post-intervention, and 2-month follow-up - covering different dimensions of children (e.g., children's emotional and developmental difficulties) and parental (e.g., parenting stress) psychological functioning, and parenting (e.g., ESPP).

Inclusion Criteria:

Parents/legal guardians:

• with at least one child aged between 3 and 6 years old (inclusive) who lives with the parent/legal guardian,
• with at least 18 years old,
• who can read, understand, and speak Portuguese
• who live in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area or Lisbon District. When applicable, both parents will be allowed to participate.

Exclusion Criteria:

• parents' poor Portuguese language skills
• parents' being currently enrolled in another structured parenting program
• if the target child is already attending elementary school at the time of recruitment
• if the target child has a diagnosis of a severe Communication and/or Developmental Disorder, or
• if the target child is under a child protection measure that implies that the child does not live with their parents (e.g., if the child is in foster care).

Only participants that give informed consent to participate in the study will be included and randomized to one of the study conditions (TIK vs. waiting list group).