An interventional study of Emotion Regulation Skills Training and Moderation in Consumer Electronics Use Training in Family Relations, Resilience and Emotion Regulation, sponsored by City University of Hong Kong. Recruiting at 1 site in China. Open to participants aged 10 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-02-12.
Sponsored by City University of Hong Kong · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
Guided by the process model of emotion regulation, integrative affect-regulation framework for resilience, and the reciprocal dynamics of emotion, affect, and resilience in the family system, researchers will develop a parallel intervention to incorporate two key members in Mainland-Hong Kong cross-boundary families: a parent and a child by improving their affect/emotion regulation skills, de-escalate family conflicts, and flourish under hardships. Specifically, researchers predict that participants in the intervention group will report greater improvement in resilience, emotion regulation, psychological well-being, family harmony, and social connectedness than those in the control group.
Researchers will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) intervention study targeting cross-boundary families' affect/emotion regulation skills as well as personal and family resilience. Researchers will implement two arms with the allocation ratio of 2:1. As most cross-boundary children are preoccupied with after-school academies and extracurricular activities, participating parents will receive four group activity sessions, while children will receive two sessions. The intervention themes and skills are the same for parents and children but condensed for children.
Researchers will collaborate with the International Social Services Hong Kong Branch (Shenzhen) (hereinafter referred to as "ISS"), an NGO that has served cross-boundary families in Shenzhen for over 30 years.
225 studies on the registry are indexed under Emotional Regulation; 121 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 450 is above the median of 74 across 211 interventional studies indexed under Emotional Regulation.
Browse Emotional Regulation studies →City University of Hong Kong is the lead sponsor of 24 studies on the registry; 11 are open to participants now.
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Inclusion Criteria for Parents:
Inclusion Criteria for Children:
Exclusion Criteria:
(a) those who have current diagnoses of severe physical or mental illnesses;
This arm will receive training in emotion regulation skills, including mindfulness skills to help redeploy their attention, cognitive reappraisal skills to analyze stimuli or emotion-eliciting events from a more comprehensive perspective, situation change skills to regulate emotions by exposing oneself to nature, experiential acceptance skills through metaphor, and breathing techniques. They will also receive training in theories of the family emotion system.
Behavioral: Emotion Regulation Skills Training
This arm will be trained to moderate their and their family members' use of commercial electronics. They will do so by learning mechanisms behind addictions, family communication skills, and various substitute activities for commercial electronics usage.
Behavioral: Moderation in Consumer Electronics Use Training
This arm will receive training in emotion regulation skills, including mindfulness skills to help redeploy their attention, cognitive reappraisal skills to analyze stimuli or emotion-eliciting events from a more comprehensive perspective, situation change skills to regulate emotions by exposing oneself to nature, experiential acceptance skills through metaphor, and breathing techniques. They will also receive training in theories of the family emotion system.
This arm will be trained to moderate their and their family members' use of commercial electronics. They will do so by learning mechanisms behind addictions, family communication skills, and various substitute activities for commercial electronics usage.
Resilience
Participants' psychological resilience will be measured by the 25-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Participants will report their perceived psychological resilience of self on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = strongly disagree; 4 = strongly agree). Higher total scores indicate higher levels of psychological resilience.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Cognitive Emotion Regulation
Participants' use of adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies will be measured by corresponding subscales of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). The study will employ five subscales, including acceptance, positive refocusing, refocus on planning, positive reappraisal, and putting into perspective, as these strategies are the targets of the intervention. Each subscale includes four items. Participants will report their use of each strategy on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = almost never; 5 = almost always). Higher scores for each subscale indicate more use of the corresponding cognitive emotion regulation strategy.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Behavioral Emotion Regulation
Participants' use of adaptive behavioral emotion regulation strategies will be measured by corresponding subscales of the Behavioral Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (BERQ). The study will employ two subscales (seeking distraction and putting into perspective) as these strategies are the targets of the intervention. Each subscale includes four items. Participants will report their use of each strategy on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = almost never; 5 = almost always). Higher scores for each subscale indicate more use of the corresponding behavioral emotion regulation strategy.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Affective Experiences
Participants' affective experiences will be measured by the International Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Short Form (I-PANAS-SF). Participants will report their experienced positive and negative affect on a 10-item, 5-point Likert scale (1 = never; 5 = always). Higher scores indicate higher levels of positive or negative affect.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Depression and Anxiety Symptoms
Participants' depression and anxiety symptoms will be measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4). On this 4-point Likert scale from 0 to 3, participants will report their frequency of depression and anxiety symptoms. Higher scores indicate more severe symptoms.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Well-being
Participants will also complete the 5-item WHO Well-Being Index (WHO-5). They will report their well-being with a 6-point Likert scale (0 = at no time; 5 = all of the time). Higher scores indicate higher levels of well-being.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Family Resilience
Participants' family resilience will be measured by the Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire Short Version (WFRQ-9). Participants will report their perceived family resilience on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = rarely/never; 5 = almost always), with higher scores indicating higher levels of family resilience.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Family harmony
Participants will complete the 8-item Family Harmony Scale. Participants will report their perceived level of family harmony on this 8-item, 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Higher scores indicate higher levels of family harmony.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Parent-Child Conflicts
Participants' recent conflicts with their children or parents will be measured by two single-item scales. Participants will report their frequency of conflicts on one scale and the intensity on another. Each scale ranges from one (no conflicts) to five (four or more times of conflicts or very severe conflicts).
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Parenting Self-Efficacy
Parents will report their parenting self-efficacy on the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale. Participants will indicate their perceived self-efficacy in parenting activities on a 17-item, 6-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). Higher scores indicate higher levels of self-efficacy in parenting.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Parental Stress
Parents will complete the Parental Stress Scale (PSS) to measure their subjective feelings of stress as a parent. Participants will report their perceived parental stress on a 18-item, 6-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). Higher scores indicate higher levels of parental stress.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
Sense of Community
Participants will report their sense of community on the Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS). The measurement includes four subscales: needs fulfillment, group membership, influence, and shared emotional connection. Participants will report their perceived sense of community of self on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Higher scores indicate participants' higher sense of community.
Time frame: Baseline, 4 weeks, 8 weeks
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City University of Hong Kong