An interventional study of VIPP-SD in Parent-Child Relations, sponsored by ISPA - Instituto Universitario de Ciencias Psicologicas, Sociais e da Vida. Recruiting at 1 site in Portugal. Open to participants aged 2 Years to 5 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-01-05.
Sponsored by ISPA - Instituto Universitario de Ciencias Psicologicas, Sociais e da Vida · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
The Video-feedback Intervention to Promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) is an attachment-based intervention aimed at promoting parental sensitivity and the use of developmentally appropriate, non-coercive discipline strategies (ref). The VIPP-SD intervention integrates the enhancement of parental sensitive responsiveness (Ainsworth et al., 1974) with parent coaching aimed at preventing coercive parent-child interaction cycles (Patterson, 1982) and facilitating sensitive limit-setting practices.ase parental sensitivity and sensitive discipline of the primary parent
Aims and hypotheses
1,055 studies on the registry are indexed under Hypersensitivity; 149 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 120 is above the median of 73 across 691 interventional studies indexed under Hypersensitivity.
Browse Hypersensitivity studies →ISPA - Instituto Universitario de Ciencias Psicologicas, Sociais e da Vida is the lead sponsor of 11 studies on the registry; 6 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Inclusion Criteria: Children will be between 2 and 6 years old, and their parents between must be fluent in Portuguese -
Exclusion Criteria: Children with disabilities, chronic illnesses, or hereditary diseases will be excluded from the study
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Intervention group:
Other: VIPP-SD
No Intervention
Consists of four sessions (with the option of one or two additional booster sessions), held biweekly, depending on the family's needs and availability. Specifically, VIPP-SD addresses disciplinary strategies alongside sensitivity themes through: (1) the differentiation between attachment and exploration behaviors; interpretation of child's behavior and significance of a sensitive response to it; and the importance of sharing emotions (2) the application of distraction and induction as non-coercive techniques in response to challenging child behaviours or conflict-prone situations; (3) the utilization of positive reinforcement, whereby parents praise adaptive behaviours and ignore maladaptive, attention-seeking actions; (4) the implementat of a sensitive interaction pause to de-escalate conflict or temper tantrums; and (5) the demonstration of empathy towards the child in conjunction with consistent disciplinary approaches and explicit boundary-setting
Parental sensitivity: Erickson Scales of Parental Sensitivity (ESPS, Egeland, et al., 1990)
Parental sensitivity will be assessed using the the revised Erickson 7-point rating scales for Supportive Presence (from 1 = parent completely fails to be supportive to the child to 7 = parent skilfully provides support throughout the session) and Intrusiveness (from 1 = parent allows the child sufficient time to explore and to attempt to solve tools on her/his own to 7 = parent is highly intrusive; her agenda clearly has precedence over the child's wishes; Egeland et al., 1990). Supportive presence is defined as the consistent emotional, physical, and psychological availability of a mother, characterized by both verbal expressions and nonverbal behaviors. High sensitivity is associated with positive developmental outcomes in children, including secure attachment and better emotional regulation. Intrusiveness reflects the extent to which a parent disregards or interferes with the child's autonomy, wishes, interests, or behaviors.
Time frame: Data will be collected at pretest, posttest (14 weeks) .
Strengths & Difficulties Questionnaire" (SDQ Portuguese version Fleitlich et al., 2004)
The assessment tool used in this study is a 25-item questionnaire designed to evaluate emotional and behavioral problems in children aged 2 to 17 years, with responses provided by parents. The items are rated on a 3-point scale: 0 = "Not true," 1 = "A bit true," and 2 = "Very true." The questionnaire is structured into five subscales: (1) emotional symptoms, (2) conduct problems, (3) hyperactivity, (4) peer problems, and (5) prosocial behavior. For this study, only the parent version of the questionnaire is utilized. The total difficulties score is derived by summing the first four subscales (excluding prosocial behavior), yielding a score ranging from 0 to 40.
Time frame: Data will be collected at pretest, posttest (14 weeks) and follow up (12 weeks).
Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale - 21 (DASS-21)
The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale - 21 (DASS-21; Lovibond \& Lovibond, 1995; Portuguese version: Apóstolo et al., 2006) is a 21-item self-report questionnaire designed to assess symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress in parents. Each item is rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (Did not apply to me at all) to 3 (Applied to me most of the time). The scale comprises three subscales: Depression (7 items), which assesses dysphoria, hopelessness, devaluation of life, self-deprecation, lack of interest or involvement, anhedonia, and inertia; Anxiety (7 items), which measures autonomic arousal, skeletal muscle effects, situational anxiety, and the subjective experience of anxious affect; Stress (7 items), which evaluates chronic, nonspecific arousal, including difficulty relaxing, nervous arousal, irritability, agitation, and impatience. Subscale and total scores are calculated by summing the item responses.
Time frame: Data will be collected at pretest, posttest (14 weeks) and follow up (12 weeks).
AQOL-8D (Richardson & Lezzi, 2014)
Quality of life among caregivers will be measured with the Assessing Quality of Life - 8 Dimensions (AQOL-8D) (Richardson \& Lezzi, 2014) is a multi-attribute utility instrument developed to provide a sensitive and comprehensive assessment of health status among adults across eight dimensions,, including independent living, mental health, coping, relationships, pain, self-worth, happiness and senses) and 35 items with four to six response levels, each representing increasing levels of severity. This measure will be used for economic evaluation.
Time frame: Data will be collected at pretest, posttest (14 weeks) and follow up (12 weeks).
Resource Use Characterization Questionnaire.
Resources used by children and their parents will be measured using a questionnaire adapted from published questionnaires by Bouwmans et al, 2013 and Pokhilenko et al. 2023. Resource use will include healthcare services (accident and emergency visits, primary care and specialized outpatient visits and inpatient stays, medication), social services, transportation, absenteeism and presenteeism from both paid and unpaid work, and out-of-pocket expenses. This measure will be used for economic evaluation.
Time frame: Data will be collected at pretest, posttest (14 weeks) and follow up (12 weeks).
Child Rearing Practices Report-Questionnaire (CRPR-Q)
The Child Rearing Practices Report-Questionnaire (CRPR-Q; Rickel \& Biasatti, 1982, Ribeiro et al, 2021) is a 40-item parent-report questionnaire used to assess parenting practices that are theoretically and empirically linked to child developmental outcomes. Parents are instructed to respond with reference to a specific child in the household, rating each item on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 6 (strongly agree). The measure comprises two theoretically grounded subscales: Nurturance and Restrictiveness
Time frame: Data will be collected at pretest, posttest (14 weeks) and follow up (12 weeks).
Plan to share: No — Intellectual Property Data (IPD) might not be shared due to concerns about confidentiality and legal restrictions. Sharing it could risk exposing proprietary or sensitive information, including details that may affect entire family's privacy.
Started Jan 2026 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2026, 11 months after the start.
Of 150 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Hypersensitivity, half reached primary completion within 23 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 8 and three quarters within 43. This study's planned 11 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 174 studies reached it within 20 months; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 41.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
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ISPA - Instituto Universitario de Ciencias Psicologicas, Sociais e da Vida