Web-based ACT to Support Parents With Children With Chronic and Developmental Conditions

Parents of children with a chronic disease or functional disabilities have an increased risk of stress-related distress and reduced quality of life. Internet-delivered interventions are one way to reach out to exhausted parents who may often have challenges in finding time to access face-to-face services. We developed a guided web-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention for Finnish parents of children with chronic conditions or functional disabilities. Participants (N=100) will be recruited on parent associations\' Facebook groups and randomly assigned to guided web-based ACT condition and a control condition receiving psychoeducation. The guided web-based ACT condition will receive a 10-week web intervention including three remote meetings with a psychologist through the telemedicine application Doxy.me. Symptoms of burnout (SMBQ), depression (PHQ), health-related quality of life (RAND-36), mindfulness (FFMQ), general measure of psychological flexibility (CompACT) as well as the wellbeing of their child (KINDL) will be measured before (pre) and after the intervention (post), at 7-month (follow-up 1) and 10-month (follow-up 2) after the pre-measurement. In this randomized controlled trial we will investigate the outcomes and the mechanisms of change of the web-based ACTintervention. In addition, we will examine the acceptability of the web-based intervention.