Child Self-regulation: A Pilot Study on the Impact of Tuning in to Kids Parent Intervention

The current pilot project will a) adapt an evidence-based psychosocial intervention program and conduct a randomized controlled trial with a group of Norwegian parents of preschool children, b) evaluate the intervention'simpact on child mental health and c) investigate the cognitive and physiological underpinnings of this effect.This pilot study will recruit 40 Norwegian parents of preschool children prior to the transition to starting school. Baseline measures will include parent emotion coaching and parent functioning, child emotion regulation, social and behavioral functioning, child behavioral and physiological indices of cognitive capacity and attention functioning, and school adjustment. Following completion of baseline assessment, parents will be randomized into Intervention or Wait-list conditions. Intervention parents will attend a 6-session group parenting program where they will learn to emotion coach their children and regulate their own emotions. Post-program, Intervention parents will complete program evaluation to determine program feasibility and acceptability. At 6-month follow-up baseline assessments will be repeated for Intervention and Wait-list participants with primary school teachers reporting on children's adjustment to school. Wait-list parents will then be offered the N-TIK program.