LIFELINE

Study title

LIFELINE - Parent-child video interaction in the course of a family-centered day-care treatment of depressive adolescents: a pilot study

Description

The parent-child relationship is fundamental to child health and development. Moreover, previous research has shown that parental mental health is directly related to child mental health. Yet, resources for parenting and family work in the context of child and adolescent psychiatric treatment are still very limited.

The aim of the study is to better understand the causes and effects of a strained parent-child relationship and to be able to incorporate them into therapeutic services. Scientific findings obtained in this research are important and necessary, they enable the evaluation and improvement of therapeutic offers like ours. For this purpose, the quality of the parent-child relationship and its change in the course of treatment as well as parental and child psychological stress are recorded in this study and examined for correlations.

The research will take place within the therapy program administered at the day-care clinic of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Heidelberg University Hospital. Research data will be obtained and collected as follows:

1. once the adolescent is admitted for day-care treatment
2. eight weeks after admission
3. six months after discharge

For this purpose, a video interaction with the adolescent and the respective caregiver takes place at each particular time. The interaction includes a 10-minute conversation as well as the collection of questionnaires. The surveys for the adolescents focus on their psychological stress and functional impairment. The questionnaires for participating caregivers include questions about psychological distress, quality of life, and partnership.

Recruitment of participants takes place in our outpatient clinics. Patients that are presented for day-care treatment due to depression can participate in the study upon admission to the day-care clinic.

Please, feel free to contact our research team thru our main office at +49 (0) 6221 56 6914  or via Lifeline.KJP(at)med.uni-heidelberg.de if you would like more information about this study.

Head of Research Project

Project Coordinator

Team

• Dr. med. Kadiatou Coulibaly
• M.Sc. Psych. Janna Dierolf
• cand. med. Madeleine Koob

COOPERATION PARTNER

• M.Sc. Psych. Andrea Mayer, Institut für Medizinische Psychologie Heidelberg