RELAX Intervention for Adolescents with ADHD
This study is testing a program called RELAX (Regulating Emotions Like An eXpert) for adolescents with ADHD who have trouble managing their emotions. The RELAX program involves 8 weekly sessions, plus two booster sessions later on. Some families will receive the RELAX program, while others will receive educational materials about emotion regulation. Researchers want to see if RELAX helps adolescents manage their emotions better. They will measure changes in emotion regulation and how parents help their children with emotions. You might be able to join if you are an adolescent aged 11-16 with ADHD, in middle or high school, and have a verbal IQ of 80 or higher. The study aims to enroll 60 families.
- Study design
- This is a randomized controlled study with 60 participants. Families will be randomly assigned to either receive the RELAX intervention or psychoeducational materials.
- What's involved
- If you receive the RELAX intervention, you will attend 8 weekly, 1.5-hour sessions, and booster sessions at 1 and 6 months. Some families will also participate in a pilot study to give feedback on smartphone apps.
- Compensation
- Not stated in the trial record.
- Follow-up
- Participants will be followed for 6 months after enrollment to measure changes in emotion regulation.
AI-generated from the public study record. Only the study team can confirm whether you're eligible — confirm details with them before making decisions.
Regulating Emotions Like An eXpert Among Adolescents With ADHD
At a glance
Conditions
Where it's being run
1 sites across 1 statesStudy leadership
- Rosanna Breaux, PhD · PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR · Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Who to contact
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Do you actually qualify for this trial?
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Inclusion
Exclusion
What this trial measures
- Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale - Short Form (DERS-SF)From enrollment to the 6-month follow-up period.
The DERS-SF will be used to assess emotion regulation problems (e.g., poor emotion awareness, poor emotion clarity, non-acceptance of emotions, poor access to emotion regulation strategies). The DERS will be completed at all timepoints by both parents and adolescents, with parents completing ratings for themselves and for their adolescents. The 18 DERS items are rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 - Almost Never (0-10%) to 5 - Almost Always (91-100%) and the total score represents a sum across items (with 3 items reversed score; range = 18-90) such that higher scores indicate greater dysregulation.
- Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ)From enrollment to the 6-month follow-up period.
The CERQ is a 36-item scale designed to evaluate cognitive aspects of emotion regulation or cognitive coping strategies (e.g., self-blame, rumination, putting into perspective, positive reappraisal, acceptance). Parents and adolescents are asked to rate what they generally think when they experience negative or unpleasant events on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). Each subscale consists of 4 items. Of the 4 items included in a scale a sum score is made (simple straight count), which can range from 4 (never used) to 20 (often used cognitive coping strategy). Not more than 1 of the 4 items included in a scale may be 'missing'. In that case, the 'missing' score is replaced by the average of the three remaining scores. In this manner, even in the case of a missing value, a scale score ranging from 4 to 20 is obtained, with higher scores indicating more often using that particular cognitive coping strategy.
- Observed Parent Emotion Socialization StrategiesFrom enrollment to the 6-month follow-up period.
The Conflict Discussion Task will be coded for parent emotion socialization in response to adolescents' distress through seven possible reactions: emotion-focused (i.e., empathy and validation), problem-focused (i.e., targeting the stressor itself with questions and advice), minimizing (i.e., dismissing the affect as unimportant), punitive (i.e., blaming the adolescent for the affect); magnifying (i.e., intensifying adolescents' affect), autonomy-inhibiting (i.e., interfering with adolescents' independence in dealing with their affect), and facilitative engagement (i.e., general sensitivity and responsiveness to adolescents' attempts to discuss affect). Responses are coded on a scale representing an (1) absence, (2) minimal, (3) moderate, or (4) strong presence of the behavior reflected. These codes will be collapsed into supportive (emotion-focused, problem-focused, facilitative engagement) and non-supportive (minimizing, punitive, magnifying, autonomy-inhibiting) responses.
- Conflict Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ)From enrollment to the 6-month follow-up period.
The CBQ consists of 20 true-false questions regarding how well parent and adolescents get along, get angry at each other, and behaviors that occur during arguments. The CBQ total score ranges from 0-20 with higher scores indicating more parent-adolescent conflict.
- Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) - Adolescent Version -From enrollment to the 6-month follow-up period.
Parent and adolescent report on the CCNES Adolescent Version will be collected to assess changes in parent emotion socialization. The CCNES-Adolescent consists of 9 hypothetical situations, each with 6 possible responses for how parents would react rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 - Very Unlikely to 7 - Very Likely. These 6 response types each become a subscale (distress, punitive, expressive encouragement, emotion-focused, problem-focused, and minimization), with each subscale score representing the mean rating across the 9 items. These 6 subscales can be further collapsed into supportive (expressive encouragement, emotion-focused, problem-focused) and non-supportive (distress, punitive, minimization) responses, with higher scores indicating a greater likelihood a parent will use that particular response type.