Parent-Child Memory Study: Improving Future Thinking Among Mothers

Part of paid clinical trials in Flint, Michigan.

Sponsor
Henry Ford Health System
Study ID
NCT06145919
Status
Recruiting
Apply to this trial

Conditions

  • Behavior, Health

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
FEMALE
Age
5 Years - N/A
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Episodic Future Thinking (EFT) — BEHAVIORAL
    The adapted episodic future thinking (EFT) intervention will focus on generation of vivid, substance-free, rewarding events that could happen in the future with their children.
  • Episodic Recent Thinking (ERT) — BEHAVIORAL
    In the episodic recent thinking (ERT) condition, the participant will instead describe in vivid details events that have occurred in the recent past.

Study Details

Parents of children from impoverished communities are disproportionately more likely to engage in harsh physical discipline, which can lead to serious clinical outcomes, including suicidal ideation and attempts. One mechanism linking low resource environments and maladaptive parenting strategies is maternal delay discounting, or the tendency to value smaller, immediate rewards (such as stopping children's misbehavior via physical means) relative to larger, but delayed rewards (like improving the parent-child relationship). This study will examine the efficacy of implementing a low-cost, brief intervention targeting the reduction of maternal delay discounting to inform broader public health efforts aimed at improving adolescent mental health outcomes in traditionally underserved communities.

Key Dates

Start date
Feb 6, 2024
Status verified
May 2025
Primary completion
Aug 31, 2025
Completion
Aug 31, 2025

Study Design

Enrollment
144 participants (estimated)
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION

Arms

  • Experimental: Episodic Future Thinking (EFT)
    Mothers will receive episodic future thinking (EFT). Mothers will meet with a "peer mother" who will administer the EFT intervention, including generation of several specific future events reflecting positive interactions with their child. The participant will be asked to discuss their relationship with their child and to give examples of both positive and negative parenting from their personal experience. The "peer mother" will then ask the participant to think about their long-term parenting goals and will discuss how to create a vivid event that will be easy to remember. We will also teach each parent a behavioral parent training element called Special Play Time. Following this session, participants are asked to engage in messaging that will prompt them to think about future events.
  • Active Comparator: Episodic Recent Thinking (ERT)
    In the episodic recent thinking (ERT) condition, the participant will be asked to discuss their relationship with their child and to give examples of both positive and negative parenting from their personal experience. The "peer mother" will then ask the participant to think about the present and discuss how to focus on the present. Two positive recent events and two negative recent events will be used to create ERT scenes for the parent to envision their current relationship with their child. We will also teach each parent a behavioral parent training element called Special Play Time. Following this session, participants will receive messages over the course of two weeks helping parents to focus on recent events with their child.

Primary Outcome Measure

Change in Monetary Choice Questionnaire [ Time Frame: Baseline, Intervention, Week 2, Month 3, Month 6, Month 9 ]

Central Contacts

Locations (1)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
Mothers of Joy Institute for Parenting and Family Wellness, IncFlintMichigan48503
Shearese Stapleton

Find similar trials in Flint, MI

By research site
Mothers of Joy Institute for Parenting and Family Wellness, Inc· Flint, MI

Related Studies