Recruiting

ADAPT vs. IYPP

Sponsor:

University of Toronto

Code:

NCT07749521

Conditions

Depression / Major Depressive Disorder

Conduct Disorders in Children

Disruptive Behaviour in Children

Parenting Intervention

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

ADAPT Treatment

Incredible Years Parenting Program (IYPP)

Study Details

Brief summary:

Standard Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) is often less effective for parents experiencing depression. As such, the Addressing Depression and Positive Parenting Techniques (ADAPT) intervention is a novel BPT tailored to address the unique emotional and cognitive needs of depressed parents to improve treatment outcomes.

The objective of this study is to determine the efficacy of ADAPT in reducing child emotional and behavioral difficulties compared to the gold-standard Incredible Years Parenting Program (IYPP).

This study is a 4-year, individually-randomized group treatment (IRGT), parallel-group trial. We aim to recruit 180 caregivers and their children (aged 6-11 years) seeking treatment for their child's emotional and behavioral difficulties from multiple mental health centres across Toronto, including but not limited to the University of Toronto, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), and Women's College Hospital (WCH).

Participants will be asked to complete research measures:

  • before randomization
  • post-treatment
  • 6 months after the end of treatment

Participants will be randomized to either the experimental ADAPT intervention - A 10-session virtual program (1 individual, 9 group) focused on emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and cognitive restructuring, or the control intervention: Incredible Years Parent Program (IYPP) - A 12-session gold-standard BPT delivered virtually.

Conditions

Depression / Major Depressive Disorder

Conduct Disorders in Children

Disruptive Behaviour in Children

Parenting Intervention

Study ID

NCT07749521

Start date

Aug, 2026

Status verified date

Aug, 2026

Completion date

Aug, 2030

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Aug, 2030

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

1. 18 years of age or above
2. has a child aged 6-11 years with clinically elevated emotional and behavioural disorders (Abnormal Range, 93rd percentile) on the Total Difficulties Scale of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
3. parent shows clinical elevations for mild-moderate depression on the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 (PHQ-8) (>4 and <15)
4. capacity to tolerate a virtual group context assessed by clinical interview

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Parent shows active suicidal ideation, substance use disorder, or psychosis
2. they cannot communicate in English
3. child previously diagnosed with autism or an intellectual disability

Study Design

Enrollment

180 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: ADAPT Treatment

Participants in the experimental arm will receive the novel Addressing Depression and Positiving Parenting Techniques (ADAPT) treatment. ADAPT is a targeted treatment adapted by the Co-PI based on the Parenting a Child Who Has Intense Emotions program. The treatment has modules that help parents build emotion regulation skills, distress tolerance skills, and helpful ways of thinking about their parenting. The program also contains components of standard behavioural parent training, including strategies to build family structure, routines, and predictable parenting responses to children's behavioral challenges. Additionally, ADAPT includes elements of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), an effective intervention for the treatment of adults and youth with dysregulated emotion and behavior.

active comparator: Incredible Years Parenting Program (IYPP)

Participants randomized to the control arm will receive the Incredible Years Parenting Program (IYPP). IYPP is a best-practice and widely used treatment for parents of children with EBD.

Interventions

ADAPT Treatment

ADAPT is a 10-session virtual caregiver program (one individual engagement session and nine group sessions) that was developed with clinician and parent input. The initial engagement session is an individual meeting between the group facilitator and parent to build rapport and learn about the parent's unique challenges and parenting needs. Based on a motivational interviewing framework, this session is designed to gather information, discuss readiness for treatment and goals. The questions and tools used in this session help to build a collaborative understanding of unique child and parent needs that may be addressed through ADAPT and leave the parent with the hope that ADAPT can be helpful. The 9 virtual group treatment sessions that follow include modules to help parents understand the multiple potential contributions to their child's emotional/behavioral challenges, build their own emotion regulation skills, distress tolerance skills, and more helpful ways of thinking.

Incredible Years Parenting Program (IYPP)

The 12-session manualized treatment is considered a gold-standard treatment because it has shown efficacy in large-scale randomized and controlled trials and meta-analyses. Parents are helped to shift their children's emotional and behavioral difficulties through improved parental skills and competencies with behaviour management, and a parental problem-solving approach. IYPP will be delivered virtually.

Primary outcome measure

  • Changes in child emotional and behavioral difficulties [ Time Frame: Baseline (pre-randomization), post-treatment (12-weeks post-randomization), and 6-month follow-up ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Brendan Andrade, PhD

416-946-5905brendan.andrade@utoronto.ca

Locations

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)

Recruiting

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Contacts

Madison Moloney

416-535-8501madison.moloney@utoronto.ca

More Information

Sponsor

University of Toronto

Last update posted

Aug 6, 2026

Last verified

Aug, 2026

Keywords

  • behavioural parent training
  • depression
  • parenting skills
  • child disruptive behaviour

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Toronto on 2026-08-06.