The Tuning in to Kids parenting program delivered online improves emotion socialization and child behavior in a first randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Emotion-focused parenting interventions have only rarely been evaluated systematically in Europe. This study investigates the effectiveness of “Tuning in to Kids” (TIK) from Australia delivered online in a randomized controlled trial. TIK is a six-week emotion-focused group parenting program that has shown to improve many aspects of parent emotion socialization as well as child problem behavior in several different countries across cultures. Parents (N = 141) of children between 3 and 6 years of age were included in the study and randomly assigned to an intervention and wait-list control group. The intervention was delivered online due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2021 (intervention group) and one year later (control group) in Switzerland. Parents’ beliefs about emotions, their reported reactions to the child’s negative emotions, family emotional climate, and child behavior (internalizing and externalizing) improved after the intervention and stayed better until the 6 months follow-up in the intervention group, but not in the wait-list controls. Adherence to the program was very high. This study shows that parent emotion socialization practice is changeable with small effects even on child behavior and even after online delivery. This possibly makes Tuning in to Kids a promising emotion-focused parenting intervention when delivered online as an interactive group webinar.