Recruiting

Observational Study

Sponsor:

Henry Ford Health System

Code:

NCT06145919

Conditions

Behavior, Health

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: Female

Age: 5+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Episodic Future Thinking (EFT)

Episodic Recent Thinking (ERT)

Study Details

Brief summary:

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.

Conditions

Behavior, Health

Study ID

NCT06145919

Start date

Feb 6, 2024

Status verified date

May, 2025

Completion date

Aug 31, 2025

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Aug 31, 2025

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: Female

Age: 5+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Parent Inclusion Criteria:

1. A mother and or grandmother from the Flint area with a child/grandchild between the ages of 5-10 who can provide legal consent for that child
2. Self-report that they have consistent contact with the child/grandchild
3. Willing to participate in the study
4. Able to participate in written assessments and an intervention conducted in English
5. Have a working cell phone that can receive and send text messages and be willing to receive/send text messages as part of the study
6. Have a phone or device that's able to use video conferencing software if interested in virtual participation

Parent Exclusion Criteria:

1. Self-disclosed active suicidality/homicidality
2. Self-disclosed current bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or psychosis
3. Self-reported current and ongoing involvement with child protective services

Child Inclusion Criteria:

1. Children must be between the ages of 5-10 and have a mother/grandmother willing to provide consent for their participation
2. Willing to participate in parent-child observation sessions
3. Elementary proficiency in English
4. Willing to participate in study surveys

Child Exclusion criteria:

1. Self-disclosed active suicidality/homicidality
2. Self-disclosed current bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or psychosis

Study Design

Enrollment

144 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Prevention

Interventions and Outcome Measures

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.

Interventions

Episodic Future Thinking (EFT)

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)

In the episodic recent thinking (ERT) condition, the participant will instead describe in vivid details events that have occurred in the recent past.

Primary outcome measure

  • Change in Monetary Choice Questionnaire [ Time Frame: Baseline, Intervention, Week 2, Month 3, Month 6, Month 9 ]
  • Change in Consideration of Future Consequences Scale Score [ Time Frame: Baseline, Intervention, Week 2, Month 3, Month 6, Month 9 ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Julia Felton, PhD

704-995-7832Jfelton4@hfhs.org

Locations

Mothers of Joy Institute for Parenting and Family Wellness, Inc

Recruiting

Flint, Michigan, United States, 48503

More Information

Sponsor

Henry Ford Health System

Last update posted

May 14, 2025

Last verified

May, 2025

Keywords

  • episodic future thinking
  • episodic recent thinking
  • delay discounting
  • parent-child relations
  • low resource
  • Flint, Michigan
  • special play time

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Henry Ford Health System on 2025-05-14.