‘Therapy for children and parents after domestic violence’

This is a multicenter, multi-informant and multi-method study within a randomized 2 by 2 factorial experimental design. Participants (N=100) are children, aged 4 to 12 years, and their parents, who have witnessed or have been physically victimized by IPV. Main aim of the study is to test the effects of two parental components as an addition to TF-CBT based therapy for reducing children’s symptoms and adjustment problems after being exposed to IPV. Primary outcome measures are posttraumatic stress symptoms, internalizing and externalizing problems and adjustment in children. Secondary aim of the study is to test whether enhanced effects can be explained changes in children’s responses towards experienced violence, parental availability, and quality of parent-child interaction. To address this secondary aim, the main parameters are observational and questionnaire measures of parental availability, parent-child relationship variables, and children’s responses to IPV. Duration and severity of the IPV, parental psychopathology and new incidents of IPV are examined for their moderating effect. Data are collected three times during the program, one week before the program starts (T1), and one week (T2) and six months (T3) after finishing the program. Both intention-to-treat and completer analyses will be done.

Pre-treatment, post-treatment and follow-up at 6 month.

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) based intervention for children exposed to interparental violence, in the Netherlands registered as ‘HORIZON methodiek voor kinderen die ruzie en geweld in het gezin hebben meegemaakt. The HORIZON consists of 3 components,

1)TF-CBT based group intervention for children and parents (15 weekly sessions);

2) Preparatory Program for Parents (6 sessions prior to TF-CBT based group intervention);

3) Parent-Child Interaction Sessions (at the end of the 15 weekly TF-CBT based parallel parent and child groupsessions, both groups conjoint in parent-child interaction).

Four conditions:

Condition 1; Preparatory Program Parents + TF-CBT based intervention + Parent-Child interaction sessions (=HORIZON);

Condition 2; Preparatory Program Parents + TF-CBT based intervention;

Condition 3; TF-CBT based intervention + Parent-Child interaction sessions;

Condition 4: TF-CBT based intervention.