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Funded Grants

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Making the race fair for young children at risk: a targeted prevention approach to reducing child emotional and behaviour problems

Project Overview

One of the largest predictors of mental illness is childhood emotional and behavioural problems (EBP, e.g., aggression, anxiety, depression), which occur in 12-26% of children under age 6 years. There is an urgent need for early interventions that prevent the onset of EBP in young children. For this project, Principle investigator Teresa Bennett and her team will implement and study the Family Check-Up (FCU) as a targeted child mental health prevention program within a Canadian setting. The FCU is a brief, evidence-based intervention that incorporates individualized assessment, motivational interviewing and other services. It has demonstrated improvements in child EBP, parenting and parental depression in US studies. However, it is not known if it will have the same impact in Canada, nor understood how its effects on caregivers’ and children’s brain- and stress responses lead to improved child and family mental health.  In partnership with McMaster Children’s Hospital, the team is implementing and evaluating the effects of the FCU as an evidence-based prevention model that engages families and communities in reducing the burden of childhood EBP. They are developing an innovative clinical research program that studies its effects on children’s developing self-regulation and stress responses as a pathway to improved mental health. This will fill the crucial health services gap faced by children at greatest risk of falling furthest behind due to childhood-onset mental illness.

Principal Investigator

Teresa Bennett , McMaster University

Team Members

Katholiki Georgiades, McMaster University

Andrea Gonzalez, McMaster University

Ellen Lipman, McMaster University

Magdalena Janus, McMaster University

Charlotte Waddell, Simon Fraser University

John McLennan, University of Calgary

Michael Boyle, McMaster University

John Cairney, McMaster University

James Dunn, McMaster University

Partners and Donors

RBC

Project Ongoing

Making the race fair for young children at risk: a targeted prevention approach to reducing child emotional and behaviour problems

  • Program Type

    Team grants

  • Area of research

    Mental Health

  • Disease Area

    Mental illness

  • Competition

    Other

  • Province

    Ontario

  • Start Date

    2016

  • Total Grant Amount

    $909,997

  • Health Canada Contribution

    $454,999

Contact Us

1200 McGill College Avenue
Suite 1600, Montreal, Quebec
H3B 4G7

+1 (514) 989-2989 info@braincanada.ca

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Territorial acknowledgement

The offices of Brain Canada Foundation are located on the traditional, ancestral territory of the Kanien'kehá:ka Peoples, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations. We honour and pay respect to elders past, present and emerging, and dedicate ourselves to moving forward in the spirit of partnership, collaboration, and reconciliation. In our work, we focus our efforts on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, particularly those that pertain to improving health for Indigenous Peoples and that focus on advancing our own learning on Indigenous issues.

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