Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Trial
Official title:
Pai.ACT: A Deep-learning-powered, Smartphone-delivered, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Parents of Children With Special Needs: A Feasibility Study
Limited psychological support for parents of children with special needs in Hong Kong can profoundly impact the child rehabilitation process and the well-being of parent-child dyads. Leveraging previous evidence from our team's research, we have developed Pai.ACT, the first deep learning-based mental health advisory system for parents. Pai.ACT incorporates the counselling logic of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) through natural language processing, enabling parents to engage in human-like voice-to-text conversations and receive assessments and stepped-care mental health interventions, including guided self-help materials and real-time, individual-based counselling based on ACT. Following the research and development phases, we aim to kick off the utilisation of Pai.ACT by (1) pilot-testing its feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy in improving mental health outcomes for parents of children with special needs and (2) researching to determine the most optimal service model for parents by exploring their perceptions through focus group interviews. Pai.ACT offers accessible and comprehensive mental health services to all Chinese-speaking parents, addressing their psychological burden in caring for children with special needs. Pai.ACT could bring substantial and enduring societal benefits to Chinese-speaking families by integrating mental health support services for family caregivers with current child rehabilitation services and non-governmental organisations. Furthermore, this could contribute to reducing the public stigma attached to special needs children while increasing mental health awareness.
Status | Recruiting |
Enrollment | 60 |
Est. completion date | September 30, 2025 |
Est. primary completion date | September 30, 2024 |
Accepts healthy volunteers | No |
Gender | All |
Age group | 19 Years and older |
Eligibility | Inclusion Criteria: - Primary caregivers who are Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong residents. - The caregiver must cohabitate with the child with special needs. - The child under the participant's care should be aged between 2-8 years. The child should be either diagnosed or suspected to have one of the developmental conditions such as ASD, ADHD, or DD. These conditions must be recognised by the Child Assessment Service of the Department of Health and conform to the DSM-5 criteria. The diagnosis or suspected diagnosis should be documented in the electronic medical record at the study hospital or the case profile record at the collaborating non-governmental organisations. Note: The age range of 2-8 years was selected due to the substantial impact of parenting on the developmental milestones of preschoolers and junior school-aged children. Exclusion Criteria: - Parents diagnosed with severe mental illnesses are excluded. - Parents who are currently pregnant are excluded. - Parents who are less than six months postpartum are excluded. - Parents with a developmental disability that interferes with their ability to comprehend the program's content are excluded. - Parents with cognitive, language, communication, visual, or hearing impairments or disorders that could impede their understanding of the intervention content are excluded. - Parents currently participating in other psychosocial, psychoeducational, or parenting interventions are excluded. |
Country | Name | City | State |
---|---|---|---|
Hong Kong | The Chinese University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong | |
Hong Kong | The Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital | Hong Kong |
Lead Sponsor | Collaborator |
---|---|
Chinese University of Hong Kong | Hong Kong Christian Service, Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, Hong Kong Young Women's Christian Association, The Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, Yang Memorial Methodist Social Service |
Hong Kong,
Type | Measure | Description | Time frame | Safety issue |
---|---|---|---|---|
Primary | Parenting Stress | Parenting stress will be assessed using the Parental Stress Scale (PSS, 18-item, 5-point scale). The PSS is designed to evaluate the perception of parenting roles in terms of parental satisfaction and strain. A higher score represents a higher level of parental stress. The Chinese PSS version, including its subscales, has demonstrated strong convergent validity, discriminant validity, and internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .79-.88) among Chinese parents. | Change from baseline to immediate and 3 months post-intervention | |
Primary | Child's Emotional and Behavioural Symptoms | The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) will assess the child's emotional and behavioural symptoms. The SDQ uses a 3-point Likert scale to assess the child's emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, peer problems, and prosocial behaviour, with five items per subscale. The Chinese SDQ version has reported adequate test-retest reliabilities (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient = .75-.86) and discriminant validity among Hong Kong parents. | Change from baseline to immediate and 3 months post-intervention | |
Secondary | Anxiety Symptoms | Anxiety symptoms will be assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale. The GAD-7 is a 7-item, 4-point Likert scale with a total score of =10, indicating potential anxiety disorder. | Change from baseline to immediate and 3 months post-intervention | |
Secondary | Depressive Symptoms | Depressive symptoms will be assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The PHQ-9 is a 9-item, 4-point Likert scale with a total score of =10, indicating potential depression. | Change from baseline to immediate and 3 months post-intervention | |
Secondary | Psychological Flexibility | Psychological flexibility will be assessed using the Psyflex questionnaire and/or Comprehensive Assessment of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (CompACT). The Psyflex is a 6-item, 5-point Likert scale designed to measure psychological flexibility, while the CompACT measures the core processes of ACT, including openness to experience, behavioural awareness, and valued action. Each item is rated on a 7-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating greater psychological flexibility. | Change from baseline to immediate and 3 months post-intervention | |
Secondary | Perceived usability of the mobile app | Perceived usability of the mobile app will be measured using the System Usability Scale (SUS). The SUS is a 10-item, 10-point Likert scale. The total SUS score ranges from 0 to 100. A score of at least 80 out of 100 indicates high perceived usability. This score would suggest that the mobile app, integrated with the 'Pai.ACT' mental health advisory system, is highly usable for the end users. These end users are primarily parents of children with Special Health Care Needs (SHCN). | At immediate post-intervention and 3 months post-intervention |
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