Improving Psychological Functioning, Dyadic Relationships, and Family Adaptation of Newly Arrived Parents and Children in Hong Kong: A Community-based Randomized Controlled Trial 

Abstract

Background: Newly arrived parents and their children from Mainland China to Hong Kong face numerous challenges, including difficulties adapting to the new environment, language barriers, discrimination and isolation, and financial hardship. If not managed properly, these stressors may compromise their mental health and relationship functioning, potentially creating family conflicts. A brief intervention targeting newly arrived parents and children was developed to address these needs. Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of this parallel intervention in improving newly arrived parents’ and children’s 1) psychological functioning, including their emotion regulation, psychological distress, and well-being, 2) dyadic relationships, including parent-child conflicts and interparental conflicting parenting, 3) family adaptation, including their family harmony and family resilience, and 4) adaptation difficulties.

Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, a total of 201 dyads of parents and children newly arrived in Hong Kong from Mainland China for less than 7 years were recruited. At a ratio of 3:2, the research team randomly assigned 123 dyads to the intervention arm and 78 dyads to the control arm. Participants in the intervention arm received a four-week multi-component intervention (four sessions for parents and three sessions for children). Guided by the multisystemic resilience framework (Ungar, 2021), the present study aimed to promote the resilience of Chinese newly arrived parent-child dyads at four levels: individual, dyadic, family, and their adaptation in Hong Kong. The main content of the intervention included four parts. 1) At the individual level, emotion regulation skills training was provided to improve the participants’ psychological functioning. 2) At the dyadic level, psychoeducation and communication skills training based on the nonviolent communication skills, “I-message,” and emotional security theory was provided to equip the participants with family conflict awareness, knowledge, and conflict resolution skills. 3) At the family level, a family resilience exercise, “Our Family Tree,” based on the family resilience framework and the “Tree of Life” methodology in the narrative therapy, was delivered to strengthen Family adaptation and prevent future conflicts. 4) At the adaptation level, group-based intervention activities allowed participants to exchange information and seek emotional support from other groupmates. Participants in the control arm joined handicraft-making activities. Parent and child participants attended the first few sessions in separate rooms and then joined together for the final session. All participants completed assessments of emotion regulation, psychological distress, well-being, parent-child conflicts, conflicting parenting (parents only), family harmony, family resilience, and adaptation difficulties at pre-test, post-test, and the one-month follow-up (T0, T1, and T2). Moreover, in-depth interviews were conducted to collect participants’ opinions and the effects of the intervention on themselves and their family adaptation. A total of 11 dyads joined exit interviews to provide feedback on the intervention.

Results: Compared to the control arm, participants from the intervention arm showed improvements in different levels of outcomes. At the individual level, parents from the intervention arm showed greater improvements in psychological distress and well-being. Children in the intervention arm showed significant increases in emotion regulation and well-being compared to those in the control arm. Parents’ emotion regulation and children’s psychological distress remained unchanged. At the dyadic level, parents in the intervention arm reported a greater reduction in parent-child conflict and conflicting parenting behaviors than those in the control arm. In contrast, children in the intervention arm did not report any significant difference in parent-child conflicts compared to those in the control arm. At the family level, parents and children in the intervention arm did not show a greater improvement in family harmony and resilience compared to those in the control arm. Meanwhile, parents from the control arm showed a greater improvement in family resilience than those from the intervention arm. At the adaptation level, parents did not exhibit any differences between the two arms, and children in the control arm showed a greater reduction compared to those in the intervention arm. Participants’ narratives contextualized these statistical trends, showing that both parents and children adopted perspective-taking, effective emotion regulation, and communication skills in their daily lives after receiving the intervention. The participants’ psychosocial and behavioral changes corroborate their improved outcomes in statistical analyses.

Discussion and Conclusion: The intervention proved beneficial for newly arrived parents and their children. By adopting a dyadic approach that engages parents and children from newly arrived families, this study provided evidence of the effects of a multicomponent intervention on improving their individual psychological functioning, dyadic relationships, family adaptation, and adaptation difficulties. Transforming theoretical frameworks into practical applications, the study provided an effective protocol with cultural sensitivity to support key members of newly arrived families in Hong Kong.

Date of Award	28 Nov 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Xiaonan Nancy YU (Supervisor)