Development and Refinement of the RELAX Intervention, an Intervention Targeting Emotion Dysregulation and Interpersonal Conflict in Adolescents with ADHD: Results from a Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to refine and conduct a pilot evaluation of the RELAX (Regulating Emotions Like An eXpert) intervention for families of adolescents with ADHD. RELAX was refined based on 12 community clinicians’ feedback. RELAX was then implemented with 18 adolescents with ADHD and their caregivers (14 mothers, 3 fathers, 1 grandmother). Outcomes included parent and adolescent ratings of adolescent emotion dysregulation and family conflict; parent self-report of emotion dysregulation; coded parent emotion socialization behaviors during a conflict discussion; and weekly parent and clinician ratings of family conflict, emotion regulation, and communication. All outcomes were collected pre- and post-RELAX. Adolescents made large improvements on parent and adolescent ratings of emotion dysregulation (d = 1.10 and 1.23, respectively) and family conflict (d = 1.12 and 1.77, respectively). Parents made large increases in use of supportive reactions during the conflict discussion (d = 1.04) and in self-reported emotion dysregulation (d = 0.82). Large effects were found for parent and clinician weekly ratings (ds = 1.82–3.15). Results suggest that the RELAX intervention is a promising intervention targeting emotion dysregulation and family conflict among families of adolescents with ADHD, and warrants further evaluation of intervention effectiveness.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Katie Behrhorst, Natalie Buchen, Caroline Cusick, Cathrin Green, Kelly O’Connor, Kelcie Willis, and Sandra Yankah for their help with running the RELAX intervention and focus groups. We would also like to thank the clinicians who provided feedback to help improve the RELAX intervention, and the families who kindly agreed to participate in this pilot study. Finally, we would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to Al Farrell and the Clark-Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development at Virginia Commonwealth University for their advocacy and financial support of this pilot study.

Disclosure statement

The authors of this study, nor any members of their immediate family, have any conflicts of interest to disclose.