Kehoe, C. E., Havighurst, S. S., & Harley, A. E. (2014). Tuning in to Teens: Improving parent emotion socialization to reduce youth internalizing difficulties. Social Development, 23(2), 413–431. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12060

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 449

Population:

• Age — 10–13 years; Parents: Mean=44.1 years
• Race/Ethnicity — Children: Not specified; Parents: 90% Caucasian, 8% Asian, and 2% African
• Gender — Children: 49% Male; Parents: 200 Female and 25 Male
• Status — Participants were parents and children with recruited through schools.

Location/Institution: Melbourne, Australia

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of the Tuning in to Teens (TINT) parenting program in improving emotion socialization practices in parents of preadolescents and reducing youth internalizing difficulties. Participants were randomized into TINT intervention or a control group Measures utilized include the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Emotions as a Child Scales (EAC), the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS), and the Spence Child Anxiety Scale for Parents (SCAS-P). Results indicate that TINT parents reported significant improvements in parents’ internalizing difficulties and reductions in parents’ difficulties with emotion awareness and regulation at post-intervention follow-up. Both parents and youth in the TINT sample reported significant reductions in parents’ dismissing responses to the young person’s emotions, but there was no change for control dyads. TINT parents reported significant reductions in youth anxiety and depressive symptoms compared to control parents. Limitations include control group parents were not offered an intervention on a waitlist basis; concerns about the reliability of self-report measures; and lack of generalizability of findings due to youth coming from predominantly white, middle-to-higher income two-parent families.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: Approximately 8–10 months.

Havighurst, S. S., Kehoe, C. E., & Harley, A. E. (2015). Tuning in to Teens: Improving parental responses to anger and reducing youth externalizing behavior problems. Journal of Adolescence, 42, 148–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.04.005

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 449

Population:

• Age — Children: 10–13 years; Parents: Mean=44.1 years
• Race/Ethnicity — Children: Not specified; Parents: 90% Caucasian, 8% Asian, and 2% African
• Gender — Children: 49% Male; Parents: 200 Female and 25 Male
• Status — Participants were parents and children with recruited through schools.

Location/Institution: Melbourne, Australia

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used the same sample as Kehoe et al. (2014). The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of the Tuning in to Teens (TINT) program in improving emotion socialization practices in parents and whether this reduced family conflict and youth externalizing difficulties. Participants were randomized into intervention and control conditions and 225 primary caregiving parents, and 224 youth took part in the study. Measures utilized include the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Emotions as a Child Scales (EAC), the Family Conflict Scale (FCS), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Results indicate that intervention parents reported they were less dismissing of youth sadness, anger and anxiety compared to control parents. Intervention youth also reported significant reductions in parents' dismissing anger and anxiety, compared to control youth who reported no change. Both intervention and control youth reported no change in parents' dismissing sadness. Both parents and youth from the intervention condition reported a significant reduction in family conflict at follow-up, compared with control participants who reported no change. Finally, significant interactions between time and condition were found for parent-and youth-reported externalizing behavior problems, which indicated greater reductions for the intervention group. Limitations include lack of generalizability of the results due to using a relatively middle-class sample from homogenous ethnic backgrounds who self-selected to participate, and concerns about reliability on self-reported measures.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: Approximately 8–10 months.

Kehoe, C. E., Havighurst, S. S., & Harley, A. E. (2015). Somatic complaints in early adolescence: The role of parents' emotion socialization. Journal of Early Adolescence, 35(7), 966–989. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431614547052

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 449

Population:

• Age — Children: 10–13 years; Parents: Mean=44.1 years
• Race/Ethnicity — Children: Not specified; Parents: 90% Caucasian, 8% Asian, and 2% African
• Gender — Children: 49% Male; Parents: 200 Female and 25 Male
• Status — Participants were parents and children recruited through schools.

Location/Institution: Melbourne, Australia

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used the same sample as Kehoe et al. (2014). The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of the Tuning in to Teens (TINT) parenting program in reducing youth somatic complaints (SC) using both baseline and 10 month follow-up data. Participants were randomized into intervention and control conditions and 225 primary caregiving parents, and 224 youth took part in the study. Measures utilized include the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Youth Self-Report version, the Emotions as a Child Scales (EAC), the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS), and the Spence Child Anxiety Scale for Parents (SCAS-P). Results indicate that intervention parents reported changes in parents’ awareness and regulation of emotion and emotion socialization practices, and this resulted in reduced youth somatic complaints compared to the control group at post-intervention follow-up. Results also reported intervention youth-reported SC were unrelated to parents’ difficulties with emotion awareness/regulation and parental SC, and parent-reported youth SC were unrelated to parent-reported parent emotion dismissing compared to the control group at follow-up. Parent emotion dismissing and parents’ difficulties in emotion awareness/regulation were however, positively correlated with youth negative affect and anxiety (parent and youth report) when compared to the control group at follow-up. Limitations include concerns about the reliability of self-report measures, participants were not blind to condition, and parents selected to take part in the intervention reported greater youth SC at baseline.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: Approximately 8–10 months.

Kehoe, C. E., Havighurst, S. S., & Harley, A. E. (2020). Tuning in to Teens: Investigating moderators of program effects and mechanisms of change of an emotion focused group parenting program. Developmental Psychology, 56(3), 623–637. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000875

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 449

Population:

• Age — Children: 10–13 years; Parents: Mean=44.1 years
• Race/Ethnicity — Children: Not specified; Parents: 90% Caucasian, 8% Asian, and 2% African
• Gender — Children: 49% Male; Parents: 200 Female and 25 Male
• Status — Participants were parents and children recruited through schools.

Location/Institution: Melbourne, Australia

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used the same sample as Kehoe et al. (2014). The purpose of the study was to examine moderators of program effects and mechanisms of change in Tuning in to Teens (TINT), to determine whether TINT would be effective in improving adolescent internalizing difficulties. Participants were randomized into intervention (TINT) and control conditions. Measures utilized include the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Emotions as a Child Scale (EAC), the Spence Child Anxiety Scale for Parents (SCAS-P), the Spence Child Anxiety Scale (SCAS), the Child Depression Inventory parent report (CDI:P), and the Child Depression Inventory child self-report (CDI:S). Results indicate greater benefits for intervention subgroups with high pre-intervention scores on youth anxiety. Parental internalizing difficulties and parental difficulties in emotion awareness/regulation did not moderate program effects. Mediation analyses supported emotion socialization theory and showed parents’ who participated in the TINT parenting program reported improvements in their own awareness/regulation and emotion socialization, which were, in turn, related to reductions in youth internalizing difficulties. Limitations include lack of generalizability of the findings due to the low number of very low-income parents, the low number of fathers and younger parents, and the inclusion of mostly two-parent families; school level randomization resulted in two groups who differed in parent-reports of baseline youth internalizing difficulties; and reliance on self-report measures.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: Approximately 8–10 months.

Rolock, N., Ocasio, K., White, K., Havighurst, S., Cho, Y., Fong, R., Marra, L., & Faulkner, M. (2021). Tuning in to Teens (TINT) with adoptive parents and guardians in the US: the replication phase of intervention research. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 15(1), 22–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2020.1846660

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 1212

Population:

• Age — Not specified
• Race/Ethnicity — Intervention Group: 56% BIPOC; Comparison Group: 49% BIPOC
• Gender — Intervention Group: 48% Female; Comparison Group: 50% Female
• Status — Participants were recruited from the State of New Jersey Department of Children and Families.

Location/Institution: New Jersey

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to conduct an efficacy evaluation of an adapted version of Tuning in to Teens (TINT) program in a New Jersey child population, aimed at teaching caregiver skills in emotion coaching while helping them to reduce their dismissive or harsh parenting responses and regulate their own emotions. Participants were randomized to either a comparison group that received services as usual or the TINT program. Measures utilized include the Behavioral Problem Index (BPI), Family Functioning Subscale of the Protective Factor Survey, (PSF-FF), and the Belonging and Emotional Security Tool for Adoptive Parents and Guardians (BEST-AG). In addition, other study developed surveys were utilized as well. Results indicate that TINT was effective at reducing the degree to which parents and guardians are struggling, especially for those who expressed difficulty with managing their child’s behavior. Limitations include concerns about generalizability beyond the state where the research was conducted, that only a small proportion of the eligible population participated in the research, high attrition rates, and that the small study observation window was too short to observe changes.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 6–8 months.