Play Therapy

Researchers are investigating the effects of the PAX Good Behavior Game (GBG) in Swedish primary schools to address growing concerns of mental health issues among children and stress-related symptoms in teachers. This cluster-randomized controlled trial involves 28 schools and about 84 teachers, aiming to improve student well-being and reduce teacher stress. The study compares PAX GBG to active control interventions that also provide teacher training but with different content. The trial includes extensive measurements over two years, including self-assessments, classroom observations, sound level monitoring, sick leave data, and qualitative interviews. Teachers randomized to the PAX GBG group receive a two-day training on ten specific tools designed to promote prosocial and focused behaviors in classrooms, including a team-based game rewarding good behavior. Control schools choose between two alternatives: 'Count On Me!', a math fluency application for pupils, or a Collegial Learning Community intervention focused on professional development for teachers. Both groups receive similar amounts of training and supervision, including multiple sessions during the school year. The interventions are integrated into regular classroom activities starting in grade 1 through grade 3. Participants include approximately 2200 pupils and their teachers, with data collected through various methods such as questionnaires, standardized tests, observer ratings, and registry data. Measurements occur at multiple time points over two years, focusing on pupil well-being, teacher stress, classroom behavior, noise levels, and implementation fidelity. The study also evaluates cost-effectiveness by comparing health outcomes and related expenses. Safety and adverse events are monitored through teacher reports and interviews, ensuring comprehensive assessment of the interventions' impact.

This trial investigates the feasibility of a parenting program called ATTACH(TM) designed to improve mentalizing skills—the ability to reflect on thoughts and feelings—in parents of children aged 0 to 5 years. It aims to find out if parents are willing to participate in the program, complete most sessions, and whether the program increases parental mentalizing skills compared to usual treatment. The study is conducted in three municipal family treatment centers and focuses on families receiving support for psychosocial problems. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group will receive the 10-session ATTACH(TM) program in addition to the usual family support services, while the other group will receive only the usual care provided by local social and healthcare systems. ATTACH involves weekly 45-60 minute sessions that include video reviews of parent-child interactions, reflection exercises on hypothetical and real-life situations, and use of supportive materials. Usual care may include various parenting support and therapeutic services tailored to family needs. During the study, parents will complete surveys, interviews, and video observations at the start and five months after starting treatment to assess mentalizing skills and other family and child outcomes. The research team will also follow up one year later to check on ongoing treatment or support needs. The study measures include parental reflective functioning, parent-child interaction quality, child development, parental depression, and family functioning among others.

This research aims to examine how a creative drama and gamification-based educational program affects children's connection to nature and their recycling behaviors. It focuses on children aged 10 to 12 years in middle schools, recognizing the importance of early environmental awareness for a sustainable future. The study uses a randomized controlled experimental design with pre-test and post-test comparisons to measure changes in these behaviors. The study includes two groups: an experimental group that participates in an educational program involving creative drama and gamification activities, and a control group that receives traditional instruction on the same topics. The program consists of two weekly sessions lasting about 90 minutes each. Each session has four phases: warm-up, games and activities, improvisation through role-plays related to nature and recycling, and evaluation with feedback. Participants will be assessed using the Nature Connectedness Scale and the Recycling Scale for Middle School Students, along with a demographic questionnaire. These assessments take approximately 5 minutes each. The study tracks children's participation and engagement throughout the sessions to evaluate the impact of the educational methods on their environmental attitudes and behaviors. The study will run from October 2025 to October 2026.

Researchers are exploring how enriched parent-infant interactions through music and reading may influence early life physical and mental health. This study focuses on infants aged 0 to 4 months and examines how low-cost, easy-to-use interventions like infant-directed singing, passive music listening, and book reading can support infant mood, sleep quality, and parental well-being. The study is a Phase II randomized trial aiming to understand how these interventions affect families, especially those who are socio-economically disadvantaged or first-time parents. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of four groups: a singing intervention where parents engage in weekly smartphone-based music classes with their infants; a music listening group receiving curated playlists for passive listening; a book reading group provided with interactive reading materials and videos; or a no-intervention control group. The singing intervention involves active engagement with songs and movements, while the other groups focus on either passive music exposure or enriched reading activities, all delivered via smartphone apps over 20 weeks. During the 8-month study, families will participate in text message surveys and complete questionnaires to track infant distress recovery, mood, and sleep quality, along with parent mood, mental health, and parenting confidence. Data will also be collected on family context and parent-infant attachment. Researchers will analyze these health outcomes and engagement levels to assess the effects of each intervention compared to no treatment. The study includes follow-up assessments at weeks 25-26 and 31-32 to monitor lasting impacts.

This research aims to improve family resilience by enhancing open and secure communication within families, strengthening the parent-child bond, and fostering feelings of safety and stability. It focuses on parents and their children who have been evacuated from war zones, assessing how a short-term therapeutic workshop may improve emotional regulation, reflective functioning, parental self-efficacy, and child behavior. Participants in the study will either take part in a four-session play therapy workshop held once a week, led by professionals from clinical, educational, and developmental psychology. This workshop offers psycho-educational support on coping with stress through play therapy, specifically designed for parent-child pairs with children aged 3 to 6 years from war-affected regions. Observers will monitor the quality of parent-child interactions during sessions, focusing on emotion, responsiveness, encouragement, and instruction. Before and after the workshop, participants will complete questionnaires and clinical interviews to evaluate their mental functioning and relationship with their child. The study measures outcomes such as depression, anxiety, stress, parental reflective functioning, mental health, and child-parent relationship quality over a period of up to 20 weeks. The total study duration and follow-up assessments help researchers understand the workshop's impact on family resilience and emotional well-being.

Researchers are evaluating a new mental health treatment model aimed at young children aged 2 to 5 years from low-income, under-resourced communities in Maryland. This study focuses on improving children's mental health services through a partnership with Head Start programs in urban and rural areas. The goal is to test the early effectiveness, acceptability, accessibility, cost, and sustainability of this innovative approach. The treatment involves an adapted version of the Chicago Parent Program, called CPPi, which is an individualized, group-based parenting skills and support program delivered through telehealth. Registered nurses implement CPPi within trusted community agencies that support families using a two-generation social service model. The program is designed to be culturally appropriate, reduce stigma, and fit within the Head Start service system. Parents participate in 8 to 12 virtual sessions of this parenting skills program. Participants will be involved through virtual sessions, and data will be collected from parents and teachers before and after the intervention. Researchers will assess changes in children's social, emotional, and behavioral wellbeing using several questionnaires, as well as changes in parenting skills and confidence. They will also measure parent satisfaction, treatment attendance, referral processes, and the program's cost and sustainability. The study will monitor parental anxiety and depressive symptoms as secondary outcomes. The study is expected to continue through November 2028.

This research aims to examine how creative drama training affects nursing students' perception of professional nursing values such as human dignity, responsibility, initiative, safety, and autonomy. The study is a randomized controlled trial involving nursing students at Istanbul Arel University to explore whether creative drama can enhance these professional values compared to traditional teaching methods. Participants are divided into two groups: an experimental group receiving creative drama training and a control group receiving traditional education. The creative drama training includes stages such as preparation, warm-up, games, improvisation, and evaluation, with sessions lasting 90 minutes per topic. After the initial pre-test, the control group receives no intervention until after the post-test, when they are offered the creative drama training. Throughout the study, nursing students' professional values will be assessed using the Professional Values of Nurses Scale (HPVS) and a Personal Information Form. Data collection involves brief questionnaires taking about 20 minutes total. The study runs from February 2025 to June 2025, with random assignment and single masking applied to ensure unbiased results. The study evaluates changes in students' professional value perceptions before and after the interventions.

Researchers are studying the effects of the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up (ABC) parenting program on stress-related biological markers in young children. The study involves about 150 caregiver-child pairs, focusing on children aged 24 to 42 months who have faced social challenges such as low income, violence, trauma, or caregiver separation. The aim is to understand how this evidence-based parenting program may influence child stress and wellbeing. Participants will be randomly assigned to two groups: one will receive the 10-session home-based ABC program immediately, which focuses on improving parental sensitivity and nurturing behaviors. The other group will be placed on a waitlist for about four months before receiving the same ABC program. The intervention is delivered in the home environment to support positive caregiver-child interactions. During the study, caregivers will complete online surveys and engage in play-based observation tasks with their children. Non-invasive biological samples like saliva, cheek swabs, and hair will be collected from children, and saliva samples from caregivers, at two to three different times. Researchers will measure various outcomes including child inflammation, stress hormones, epigenetic age, telomere length, hair cortisol, parenting behaviors, child wellbeing, executive functioning, mental health, and caregiver anxiety and depression. The study is designed to monitor changes from before the intervention to 13-20 weeks after baseline.

Researchers are evaluating an evidence-based parenting program called the Chicago Parent Program (CPP) to see how it affects parenting skills, parent engagement, and school outcomes for 4-5-year-old children enrolled in public prekindergarten programs in Maryland. The study focuses on children in Title 1 schools in Baltimore City and Cecil County and aims to understand how well the program works and how it can be implemented and sustained in both urban and rural school settings. Schools are randomly assigned to either the experimental group, which receives the CPP intervention, or the control group, which continues usual school practices. The CPP consists of 12 group sessions designed to improve parenting skills and children's social-emotional and behavioral development. The program is delivered in groups of 10-15 parents either virtually or in person, with the format order balanced. The study period lasts for two years, with ongoing monitoring of program delivery and implementation quality in the experimental schools. Participants will be involved in multiple assessments at baseline, 4-5 months, end of prekindergarten, fall of kindergarten, and end of kindergarten. These include surveys and questionnaires measuring children's social-behavioral competence, parenting skills, parent engagement, school community cohesion, kindergarten readiness, chronic absence, and grade retention. Additional data on program reach, satisfaction, and cost-effectiveness will be collected. Demographic information for parents, children, and teachers will also be gathered to provide context for the outcomes.

This research aims to explore the parent's personal experience during parent-child psychotherapy for children under 5 years old. The study focuses on how the therapy influences the parent-child relationship, which is key to the child's emotional and brain development. Researchers want to understand the parent's view of the psychotherapy process, their relationship with the therapist, and any changes they notice during treatment. The psychotherapy studied includes interactive guidance or integrative psychodynamic psychotherapy, which helps parents reflect on past and present conflicts affecting their child's difficulties. Parents who have completed this therapy with their young child at the CHU Minjoz are invited to participate. The study uses semi-structured interviews to gather detailed feedback from the parents about their therapy experience. Participants will share their thoughts through these interviews, which will be analyzed to assess changes in how they understand their child's challenges and their own mentalizing abilities over six months. The study looks at the parent's perception of change and their capacity to understand psychological difficulties that led to therapy. The involvement mainly consists of these interviews, with no additional treatment, and aims to improve understanding of the therapeutic process from the parent's perspective.