Training parents to adolescents’ challenges: The CONNECT parent program

Adolescents’ challenges could be effectively addressed by treating their parents. Prior evaluations of CONNECT, an attachment-based program intervention for parents of adolescents at risk, indicated that improving parenting skills and the quality of parent-adolescent relationship may result in decrease of adolescents’ behavioural problems. The present study is part of a longitudinal research involving three Italian centres (Pavia, Milan, Pisa) aimed at investigating whether helping parents reduce their reliance on coercive or unproductive parenting strategies and understand changes occurring during adolescence from an attachment-based perspective would reduce their adolescents’ externalizing and internalizing symptoms. One-hundred and eighteen parents of adolescents (Mage = 15.26 years, SD = 1.49; 64% boys), randomly assigned to the intervention group (n = 66) or to the wait-list control group (n = 52), reported on their perceptions of their adolescents’ externalizing and internalizing symptoms (using the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire-parent version; Goodman, 1997), as well as attachment avoidance and attachment anxiety (using the Adolescent Attachment Anxiety & Avoidance Inventory; Moretti and Obsuth, 2009) prior to treatment (t0), within a two-week period following the final treatment session (t1) and at a four months follow-up (t2). Parents attending the CONNECT program reported significant reductions in their adolescents’ externalizing symptoms, and slightly significant reductions in their adolescents’ internalizing symptoms by a reduction of anxiety and avoidance attachment strategies. The findings add evidence to the importance of investigating mechanisms of change underlying the effectiveness of CONNECT program, providing further indications on its application in therapeutic contexts.

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• Supporting adoptive and foster parents of adolescents through the trauma-informed e-Connect parent group: a preliminary descriptive study Cecilia Serena Pace, Stefania Muzi, Marlene Moretti, Lavinia Barone, in Frontiers in Psychology 1266930/2024
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• Disseminating Evidence-Based Preventive Interventions to Promote Wellness and Mental Health in Children and Youth: Opportunities, Gaps, and Challenges Bonnie Leadbeater, Mattie Walker, François Bowen, Skye Barbic, Claire Crooks, Steve Mathias, Marlene Moretti, Paweena Sukhawathanakul, Debra Pepler, Kelly Angelius, Wendy Carr, Patricia Conrod, Ian Pike, Theresa Cummingham, Molly Stewart Lawlor, Patrick McGrath, Patricia Lingley-Pottie, in Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health /2023 pp.91
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• “It opened a new door for me”: A qualitative study of forcibly displaced parents’ experiences of an attachment-based parenting program Anna Kristen, Marlene M Moretti, Fatumo Osman, in Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry /2024 pp.700
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• eCONNECT Parent Group: An Online Attachment-Based Intervention to Reduce Attachment Insecurity, Behavioral Problems, and Emotional Dysregulation in Adolescence Ilaria Maria Antonietta Benzi, Nicola Carone, Marlene Moretti, Laura Ruglioni, Jacopo Tracchegiani, Lavinia Barone, in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health /2023 pp.3532
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Lavinia Barone, Nicola Carone, Antonella Costantino, Jennifer Genschow, Sara Merelli, Annamaria Milone, Lisa Polidori, Laura Ruglioni, Marlene Moretti, Training parents to adolescents’ challenges: The CONNECT parent program in "QUADERNI DI PSICOTERAPIA COGNITIVA" 46/2020, pp 31-46, DOI: 10.3280/qpc46-2020oa10160