Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Dec 12:12:1485836.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1485836. eCollection 2024.

Effects of a flexibly delivered group-based acceptance and commitment therapy on reducing stress and enhancing psychological wellbeing in parents of school-age children during the COVID-19 pandemic: a quasi-experimental study

Yim-Wah Mak  1 , Doris Y P Leung  1 , Xuelin Zhang  1 , Joyce O K Chung  1 , Petsy S Y Chow  2 , Jiayin Ruan  1 , Jerry W F Yeung  1
Affiliations

Effects of a flexibly delivered group-based acceptance and commitment therapy on reducing stress and enhancing psychological wellbeing in parents of school-age children during the COVID-19 pandemic: a quasi-experimental study

Yim-Wah Mak et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 has increased parental stress and significantly impacted the psychological well-being of individuals, especially parents of school-age children. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy posits that individuals can accept their unchangeable inner experiences (thoughts and feelings) while acting in ways aligned with their personal values, demonstrating effectiveness in reducing stress and improving psychological well-being, especially among parents of children with chronic illness. This study aimed to test the effectiveness of a group-based ACT, delivered flexibly, in improving stress and psychological well-being in parents with school-age children, regardless of their children's chronic conditions, within a real-world context.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study recruited parents with school-age children, through convenience sampling from the Christian Family Service Centre in Hong Kong. The group-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention consisted of five weekly sessions delivered via face-to-face meetings and online videoconferencing, consistent with participants' preferences and COVID-19 related restrictions in Hong Kong. Paired t-tests and Generalized Estimating Equations following the intention-to-treat principle were used to examine the overall effects and the moderating effects of delivery methods.

Results: The study included 250 parents, with an average age of 40.90 years, mostly women. The average age of their youngest child was 7.68 years. In line with COVID-19-related restrictions and participants' preferences, 109 parents participated in online sessions, while 141 attended face-to-face sessions. Results showed significant small-to-medium improvements in various outcome variables after the intervention, including parental stress (Cohen's d = 0.26), general stress (d = 0.18), depressive symptoms (d = 0.18), mental health literacy (d = 0.43), subjective wellbeing (d = 0.25), and psychological flexibility (d = 0.28). Notably, the online videoconferencing format was found to be as effective as the face-to-face format, with similar session attendance rates.

Conclusion: The findings highlight the potential of group-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to alleviate stress and improve psychological well-being in parents of school-age children, regardless of the delivery method, especially during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, due to limitations in the study design, caution is warranted when interpreting the overall effects of group-based ACT on parent outcomes and the moderating role of delivery methods. Further research is needed to validate these findings and explore the nuances of delivery methods in similar real-world situations.

Keywords: COVID-19; acceptance and commitment therapy; parental stress; psychological distress; real-world settings; wellbeing.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Deater-Deckard K. Parenting stress and child adjustment: some old hypotheses and new questions. Clin Psychol Sci Pract. (1998) 5:314–32. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2850.1998.tb00152.x - DOI
    1. Raphael JL, Zhang Y, Liu H, Giardino AP. Parenting stress in US families: implications for paediatric healthcare utilization. Child Care Health Dev. (2010) 36:216–24. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2009.01052.x, PMID: - DOI - PubMed
    1. Stretesky PB, Defeyter MA, Long MA, Ritchie LA, Gill DA. Holiday hunger and parental stress: evidence from north East England. Sustain For. (2020) 12:4141. doi: 10.3390/su12104141 - DOI
    1. Leung C, Leung S, Chan R, Tso K, Ip F. Child behaviour and parenting stress in Hong Kong families. Hong Kong Med J. (2005) 11:373–80. PMID: - PubMed
    1. Brown SM, Doom JR, Lechuga-Peña S, Watamura SE, Koppels T. Stress and parenting during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Child Abuse Negl. (2020) 110:104699. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104699, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources