Internet-based versus face-to-face Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for parental psychological flexibility

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of Internet vs. in-person Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention. The intervention aims to promote parental psychological flexibility and parental emotional regulation strategies in a 6-week/session program. Format efficacy was analyzed independently and comparatively in a non-randomized controlled clinical trial. The intervention protocol is the same, but the internet intervention was applied through a self-applied platform, and the in-person intervention was applied in a group setting. The sample consisted of 82 participants with a mean age of 42.79 (SD = 5.75), 62.2% of whom were women. The mean age of children was 8.41 (SD = 3.9). There were 41 parents each in online and in-person experimental groups. Parental psychological flexibility, experiential avoidance, emotion regulation skills, parental stress, satisfaction with life, and the effects of the intervention on their children’s psychological adjustment were measured at baseline, six-week postintervention, and follow-up at 91 days. The results showed no differences between groups were found in post-treatment. In the follow-up, the results showed that the workshop group reported significantly better scores in goal-oriented emotional regulation skills (F = 4.978; p < .05; η2 = .119) and children’s difficulties (F = 4.679; p < .05; η2 = .112) with a large effect size. The online group reported significant differences with a large effect size in satisfaction with life (F = 10.896; p < .005; η2 = .182) The subgroup analysis found that in-person intervention is more powerful with larger effect size than online intervention. The results of this study provide useful evidence for the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy strategies in a parenting intervention.