An interventional study of Nonviolent Communication Intervention in Anxiety, Depression Symptom and Well-being, sponsored by Hong Kong Metropolitan University. Completed at 1 site in Hong Kong. Open to participants aged 24 Years to 59 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-01.
Sponsored by Hong Kong Metropolitan University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
This randomised controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the effectiveness of face-to-face Nonviolent Communication (NVC) intervention in improving parents' mental well-being and NVC skills, reducing parenting stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, and child emotional and behavioural problems.
A total of 172 parents with primary-school-age children will be recruited and randomly assigned to an intervention group or a waitlist control group. The intervention group will receive six weekly 1.5-hour face-to-face NVC training sessions delivered by trained social workers.
Five to ten social workers will be trained by professional NVC trainers through a train-the-trainer workshop, including three sessions. Each social worker will be assessed before (TTT1), after (TTT2) the workshops and 10 months (TTT3).
Assessments for participants will be conducted at baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2), and at three-month follow-up (T3). After completing the assessments, the waitlist control group will receive the same sessions. Qualitative interviews will be conducted to explore participants' experiences and perceptions of NVC.
4,868 studies on the registry are indexed under Anxiety Disorders; 1,390 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 174 is above the median of 80 across 4,174 interventional studies indexed under Anxiety Disorders.
Browse Anxiety Disorders studies →Hong Kong Metropolitan University is the lead sponsor of 56 studies on the registry; 31 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Participants in the intervention group will receive six weekly 1.5-hour face-to-face NVC training sessions delivered by trained social workers.
Behavioral: Nonviolent Communication Intervention
The waitlist control group will not receive any training before all the assessments have been done by both groups. The wailist control group will receive NVC training sessions after all assessments. During the whole study period, these participants can access usual medical services, whether related or unrelated to mental health needs.
The intervention will be conducted by social workers who will be trained by professional NVC trainers through a train-the-trainer workshop, including six sessions. The interventions include an introduction to four fundamental principles of NVC, distinguishing observations from evaluations, identifying and expressing feelings, taking responsibility for feelings and needs, and using positive action language to make requests. Each session will feature a review of the previous session, a warm-up game and an exercise to consolidate the learning of the concepts. The intervention sessions will also include group discussions and debriefing sessions on parents' experiences of practising NVC.
Well-being
The Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWS) is a 7-item scale for assessing mental health in non-clinical populations. Using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = none of the time, 5 = all the time), the total score is calculated by summing all seven items. The Chinese version showed good validity and reliability in the investigators' previous study. The congeneric reliability was 0.85 and the test-retest reliability was 0.70.
Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
NVC skills
The measure of NVC skills was developed based on a 16-item scale that represents the four principles of NVC skills. Each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 = never to 5 = always. The average score is calculated, with higher scores indicating better NVC skills. Cronbach's alpha was 0.82 in the investigators' pilot study.
Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
Parenting stress
The Parental Stress Scale (PSS) is an 18-item questionnaire that assesses feelings about parents' parenting role. A 16-item version of the PSS was developed by Leung et al. for Hong Kong parents. Responses are given on a 5-point scale. The Chinese version showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: 0.86).
Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
Depressive symptoms
The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 is a 9-item instrument that is commonly used to measure depressive symptoms in the past two weeks. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 = not at all to 3 = nearly every day. The Chinese version showed good validity and reliability (Cronbach's alphas: 0.82-0.92).
Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
Anxiety
The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)-7 scale is a 7-item instrument to assess generalised anxiety disorder in the past two weeks. The response options for the seven symptoms are the same as PHQ-9. The Chinese version showed good validity and reliability (Cronbach's alphas: 0.89-0.95).
Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
Child emotional and behavioural problems
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a 25-item emotional and behavioural screening questionnaire for children and young people. The version for the parents of 4-17-year-olds will be used. Each item is rated on a 3-point scale ('not true', 'somewhat true', 'certainly true'). The Chinese parent version showed good validity and reliability (Cronbach's alpha: 0.81).
Time frame: T1: Baseline; T2: Immediate post-intervention; T3: 3 months post-T2
Train-the-trainer outcome
Social workers' understanding of NVC will be assessed at TTT1-TTT3. Overall satisfaction with the workshops will be assessed during TTT2. Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree).
Time frame: T1: Baseline, before the workshop; T2: Immediate after the workshop; T3: 10 months after baseline.
Plan to share: No — We are not sharing individual participant data (IPD) due to privacy concerns and limitations in participant consent. Although the data is de-identified, there remains a risk of re-identification, and participants were not explicitly consented for public data sharing. Aggregate results will be made available through publications and presentations to ensure transparency.
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This study is completed, as verified in Aug 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Hong Kong Metropolitan University