Recruiting

Observational Study

Sponsor:

University of Illinois at Chicago

Code:

NCT06241300

Conditions

Disruptive Behavior Disorder, Childhood Onset

Disruptive Behavior

Executive Function

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 4+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Chicago Parent Program

Study Details

Brief summary:

Deficits in executive functioning (EF) disproportionately impact children living in poverty and increase risk for psychopathology, particularly disruptive behavior disorders. This randomized clinical trial seeks to determine whether childhood EF, assessed across neural and behavioral units of analysis, is an experimental therapeutic target that can be directly modified through caregiver participation in the Chicago Parent Program (CPP), if increases in EF predict reduced disruptive behavior trajectories in low-income children over a short-term follow-up period, and identify which CPP-driven parenting skill improvements are the most influential in modifying EF. This work will contribute new knowledge as to whether a cost-efficient parenting intervention, developed for and with low-income families raising young children in poverty, can modify EF, a neural behavioral mechanism implicated in risk for childhood disruptive behavior problems.

Conditions

Disruptive Behavior Disorder, Childhood Onset

Disruptive Behavior

Executive Function

Study ID

NCT06241300

Start date

Nov 20, 2023

Status verified date

Apr, 2026

Completion date

Mar 31, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Feb 28, 2028

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 4+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Children must be between the ages of 4 years old and 5 years, 11 months old
  • Parent must be the legal guardian of the target child and must live with the child full-time
  • Parents will be 18 years and older (no maximum age limit)
  • Only one child and one parent per family can participate in the study
  • Child is Medicaid eligible, defined as receiving Medicaid or eligible based on family income (up to 142 percent of the federal poverty level)
  • At enrollment the child will have moderate-to-severe (i.e., (sub)clinical) impairments in executive functioning as indicated by having a global executive composite standardized score greater than or equal to 60 on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P), which will be completed by parents at the initial screen
  • Given that some assessment materials are only validated in English, parents and children for this study will need to be English-speaking
  • Child does not have a prior or current diagnosis of a disruptive behavior disorder based on Diagnostic Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) criteria
  • Child is not currently receiving mental health services
  • Child does not take medications to treat emotional or behavioral problems
  • Child does not have a medical condition, such as epilepsy, that would interfere with the completion of study tasks
  • Child is not actively suicidal
  • Child does not have a history of psychosis or currently psychotic
  • Parent does not have a medical condition that would interfere with the completion of the study
  • Parent does not have an intellectual disability that would interfere with their ability to complete the study
  • Parent does not have a severe mental illness, active suicidal ideation, or current alcohol/substance abuse/dependence that would interfere with their ability to participate in the study
  • Child can have a current or past histories of psychiatric disorders (anxiety, mood, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
  • Parent can have current or past history of psychiatric disorders
  • Parent can be taking medications to treat mental health problems

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Child is not between the ages of 4-5 years old
  • The parent is not the legal guardian of the target child
  • The parent does not live with the child full-time
  • The parent is younger than 18 years old
  • Child is not receiving Medicaid or Medicaid eligible
  • Child does not have (sub)clinical impairments in executive functioning as indicated by having a global executive composite standardized score greater than or equal to 60 on the BRIEF
  • Child and parent are not English-Speaking
  • Child has a prior or current diagnosis of a disruptive behavior disorder based on DSM-5 criteria
  • Child is currently receiving mental health services
  • Child currently takes medications to treat emotional or behavioral problems
  • Child has a medical condition, such as epilepsy, that would interfere with the completion of study tasks
  • Child is actively suicidal
  • Child has a history of psychosis or is currently psychotic
  • Parent is not willing to be randomly assigned to receive the Chicago Parent Program intervention or to the control condition where they will not receive an intervention
  • Parent has a medical condition that would interfere with the completion of the study
  • Parent has an intellectual disability that would interfere with their ability to complete the study
  • Parent has a severe mental illness and/or active suicidal ideation

Study Design

Enrollment

180 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Prevention

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Chicago Parent Program

Half of the dyads will be randomized to participant in the Chicago Parent Program (CPP), an evidence-based parenting preventive intervention for urban poor parents with children between the ages of 2-8 with behavior problems. The Chicago Parent Program consists of 12 groups sessions (11 weekly, 1 booster session). The groups are co-facilitated by two certified group leaders. Parents learn positive parenting and effective child behavior management skills, strategies to support the child's attention, literacy, and social skills, and stress management and problem solving techniques. Skill building is accomplished through watching videos of real-life parents and children during parent-child interactions, group discussion, role-playing, and weekly homework assignments.

no intervention: Control Condition

Half of the dyads will be randomized to the no intervention arm.

Interventions

Chicago Parent Program

Chicago Parent Program is an evidence-based group parenting intervention designed to reduce disruptive behavior in young children (2-8 years old).

Primary outcome measure

  • Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Preschool Version (BRIEF-P) [ Time Frame: an average of 4 months ]
  • NIH Toolbox Early Childhood Cognitive Battery [ Time Frame: an average of 4 months ]
  • EEG-Based indices of EF [ Time Frame: an average of 4 months ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Jennifer Suor, PhD

7733208989jesuor@uic.edu

Locations

University of Illinois-Chicago

Recruiting

Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60612

Contacts

Jennifer Suor, PhD

7733208989jesuor@uic.edu

Principal Investigator:

Jennifer Suor, PhD

More Information

Sponsor

University of Illinois at Chicago

Last update posted

Jul 9, 2026

Last verified

Apr, 2026

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Illinois at Chicago on 2026-07-09.