ISRCTN - ISRCTN89522188: North London Mother-Child-Education-Program (MOCEP) for Turkish-speaking families

Plain English Summary

Background and study aims
This study aims to find out whether young Turkish-speaking children living in London would benefit from a program devoted to educating their mothers in how to engage better with them. These children who live in greater London are believed to be at risk mainly because of their background and their current home environment. Most of their educational needs are found to be greater than those of other ethnic populations. This group constitutes 35% of the allocation in special schools. Turkish ethnic minorities are particularly disadvantaged in social and economic terms, and this extra deprivation was the result of racial prejudice and discrimination bearing directly on children within the educational system, as well as outside. It is though that these children do not benefit from the British education system owing to the low expectations of adults around them. They suffer a multitude of traumas: not only were they not given an opportunity to develop their minds in interpersonal experiences but also they were further traumatised by being deprived from literacy nurturing activities at their homes. Moreover, the parents experience culture clashes in their everyday lives in the UK, having been dislocated from mostly rural Turkey to urban neighbourhoods in the UK. A reorganisation of their identity is required, which in turn may have a negative effect on their parenting skills. As schools are often migrant children's first contact with Western culture, this is where their significant adaptation difficulties begin. For many, the school experience is not a good one, and the school is therefore perceived as an alienating environment. They and their parents require an adult education and child development program that encourages effective parenting. The Mother- Child-Education-Program (MOCEP) together with the Cognitive Enrichment Program (CEP) is suggested for this purpose. The aim of these Programs is to foster a strong relationship between the mother and the child within the educational cycle and assist not only the children at school, but also the whole familys integration into British society. MOCEP consists of 25 weekly group sessions, each session lasting 2 hours. The sessions are semi-structured and followed by CEPs where mothers are trained in small groups about the ways of helping children gain study skills. Evidence collected in Turkey regarding the MOCEP suggests that parents can be taught both new skills and additional knowledge related to child rearing, specifically reflective parenting skills, and can be helped with their childs particular developmental issues. The challenge here is to see whether the positive results obtained there can be repeated with the Turkish-speaking groups in London. This study is of value, as it claims to be an economic program to achieve preventative work in terms of protecting children and mothers from future academic as well as mental health related problems. It can also empower isolated migrant mothers within their community to become better parents in supporting their childrens adaptive development.

Who can participate?
Turkish speaking, literate mothers who have 4-6 years old children living in North London.

What does the study involve?
Participants will be randomly allocated to experimental and control groups. Experimental group participants will be offered Mother-Child-Education-Program (MOCEP) & Cognitive Enrichment Program (CEP) and control group participants will be offered these programmes in the next academic year.

What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
There are no potential risks of participation but potential benefits include more democratic ways of relating within the participating mothers' families as well as higher academic success in their children.

Where is the study run from?
The study is run from mainstream primary schools in Enfield, UK: Hazelbury School, Churchfield School joined up with Starksfield School, Houndsfield School joined up with Galliard School, Prince of Wales School, Wilbury School, Chesterfield School, Keys Meadow School.

When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
December 2013 to December 2014

Who is funding the study?
Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health Trust (UK).

Who is the main contact?
Dr Denny Grant
Denny.grant@enfield.gov.uk

Trial website

Contact information

Type

Scientific

Primary contact

Prof Peter Fonagy

ORCID ID

Contact details

Research department of clinical
educational and health psychology
University College London
Grower Street
London WC1E 6BT
London
WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom
020 76791943
P.fonagy@ucl.ac.uk

Additional identifiers

EudraCT number

ClinicalTrials.gov number

Protocol/serial number

N/A

Study information

Scientific title

Psychosocial enrichment program for Turkish-speaking parents and their children living in North London

Acronym

Study hypothesis

1. The experimental groups mothers and children will show the highest improvements: mothers will have higher self-esteem scores, stronger hierarchical position in their families, and will score lower in SF-36. Children will have fewer behavioral problems reported by their parents as well as their teachers, better development specifically assessed by WPPSI-R performance subtests, story stems; will be giving more ordinary life accounts; will be drawing more closer or above their age, higher academic attainment reported by their children.
2. The differences between two points of measurement will be mediated by the changes in mothers use of a more democratic style of parenting, i.e. reflective functioning.
3. Mothers who had a 'good object' in their past will show the highest improvements in their democratic style parenting.
4. Superiority of experimental groups mothers in terms of self esteem, hierarchical position in the family will be mediated by changes in democratic style of parenting.

Ethics approval

University College London Ethics Committee; 21/05/2013; 4639/001

Study design

Randomized controlled trial

Primary study design

Interventional

Secondary study design

Randomised controlled trial

Trial setting

Other

Trial type

Quality of life

Patient information sheet

Not available in web format, please contact sheila.levi.barnet@beh.mht.nhs.uk to request a patient information sheet

Condition

Disadvantaged children, Turkish migrant families, psychosocial enrichment program

Intervention

Participants are randomised to
1. Control Group: They recieve the programme in the following academic year
2. Experimental Group: Mother-Child-Education-Program (MOCEP) & Cognitive Enrichment Program (CEP)

25 group sessions each lasting 3 hours during the academic year. Follow up after 3 months.

Intervention type

Other

Phase

Not Applicable

Drug names

Primary outcome measure

1. Women's status in the family scores; mother's self-esteem scores and democratic styles of parenting scores obtained from the ACEV questionnaires through an objective scoring system developed by Bekman, S (2000)
2. CBCL parent and teacher forms has a standardised scoring systems
3. WPPSSI-III UK performance subtests are scored in a standardised way to obtain scaled scores
4. Story stems has objective scoring system
5. KFD & DAP have objective scoring systems

Measured at baseline.

Secondary outcome measures

1. SF-36 Health Survey has a standardised scoring system for Turkish population
2. Academic attainment levels are standard grades educators use in the UK
3. A brief account of child's life will be scored as 0=ordinary, 1=a bit ordinary but has elements of extraordinariness, 2=unusual,
magical thinking, extraordinary story

Measured after 5 months at the end of the intervention

Overall trial start date

15/12/2013

Overall trial end date

30/12/2014

Reason abandoned (if study stopped)

Lack of funding/sponsorship

Eligibility

Participant inclusion criteria

1. Turkish-speaking mothers
2. Living in North London
3. Having children between 4-6 years old

Participant type

Patient

Age group

Adult

Gender

Female

Target number of participants

180

Participant exclusion criteria

Illiteracy of the mother

Recruitment start date

15/12/2013

Recruitment end date

30/12/2014

Locations

Countries of recruitment

United Kingdom

Trial participating centre

Research department of clinical, educational and health psychology
London
WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom

Sponsor information

Organisation

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust (UK)

Sponsor type

Hospital/treatment centre

Website

Funders

Funder type