Me, My Child, and Us: A Group Parenting Intervention for Parents with Lived Experience of Psychosis

TL;DR

This study tested a new eight-week parenting program for parents with psychosis to improve their relationships with their children and overall wellbeing.

Contribution

The study introduces and evaluates a novel digital mentalization-based parenting intervention for parents with lived experience of psychosis.

Findings

Parents reported high satisfaction with the program's content and structure.

Self-reported improvements were observed in parental wellbeing, relationship quality, and mentalizing capacity.

The intervention was feasible to deliver, with 75% average session attendance.

Abstract

Many patients with psychosis have dependent children. Being a parent is an important and valued role for people with psychosis. However, the experience of psychosis can disrupt parent–child interactions, which can negatively affect both parents and children. Despite this understanding, there remains a lack of diagnosis-specific parenting interventions for parents with lived experience of psychosis. An eight-week digital mentalization-based parenting group intervention (Me, My Child, and Us) was piloted to evaluate its acceptability, feasibility, and impact on self-reported parenting satisfaction, parental relationship, and overall wellbeing. The study used a within-participant non-controlled pre–post design using mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology. Thirteen parents with dependent children were recruited and two eight-week groups were run. Eleven parents completed the intervention, the pre- and post-group measures, and provided qualitative feedback on their experience of the intervention. On average, parents attended 75% of sessions. Parents reported high satisfaction with the content and structure of the group. Scores on pre- and post- group measures suggest improvements in self-reported parental wellbeing, parental relationship, parenting stress levels, parenting satisfaction and efficacy, as well as mentalizing capacity. The Me, My Child, and Us parenting group is feasible to deliver and acceptable for parents with lived experience of psychosis. The preliminary self-report data indicate a controlled evaluation of the intervention as the next step.

Figures