The Effects of a Child-Focused Coping Intervention on Parental Coping and Parent Depressive Symptoms in a Randomized Control Trial

Poverty and its related stressors have been shown to lead to poor mental and physical health outcomes for entire family systems including youth and their caregivers. However, active and engagement coping strategies have been shown to disrupt this relationship, protecting against negative outcomes for youth and their caregivers. The Adaptation to Poverty Related Stress model posits that coping for children and caregivers is related in a dyadic nature, such that the ability of each unit to engage useful coping mechanisms impacts the others. Research has primarily focused on the impact of parent-focused interventions on child coping. Little research has explored how child-focused interventions impact parent coping and parent mental health. The Building a Strong Identity and Coping Skills Intervention (BaSICS), a child-focused coping intervention, was designed to educate youth about multiple uncontrollable stressors and promote coping skills development. This intervention has been shown to improve child mental health. This study explored the mediating nature of parent coping following a child's enrollment in BaSICS on parent depressive symptoms during a randomized control trial (RCT). Results revealed a mediating relationship of parent primary control coping. Additional hierarchical regressions demonstrated that parent secondary control coping was promotive of a reduction in parent depressive symptoms, as was child use of problem-solving. This study demonstrated that child coping, whether through modeling or other mechanisms, can positively impact parent coping and mental health. This suggests that child-focused programming may be another point of intervention for families in high-stress contexts.