Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT)

About This Program

Target Population: Parents and caregivers of children and adolescents aged 10-18 years.

For parents/caregivers of children ages: 10 – 18

Program Overview

Tuning in to Teens (TINT) is a parenting program that focuses on emotions and is designed to assist parents to establish better relationships with their adolescents. TINT is based on the Tuning in to Kids® parenting program. TINT teaches parents emotion coaching skills as well as ways of responding to their young person in a way that helps maintain a connected relationship. When adolescents are emotional, parents learn to notice the emotion, name it, show empathy, and then wait for the emotion to subside before trying to talk about the situation leading to the emotional experience and or what to do about it. The program emphasizes connecting and calming before talking about what to do next: this is critical to the success of this process. The program aims to prevent problems developing in adolescents, promote emotional competence (in parents and youth), and when present, reduce and treat problems with adolescent’s emotional and behavioral functioning. There is a longer version for parents and caregivers of clinical/high need adolescents but it has not been reviewed by the CEBC.

Program Goals

The goals of Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT) are:

  • Increase awareness/regulation of their own emotions and improve their emotional well-being
  • Reduce dismissive or critical reactions to adolescent’s emotions
  • Increase emotion coaching (i.e., supportive, scaffolding responses to emotions) skills with their adolescent
  • Improve relationships and reduce conflict with their adolescent
  • Promote emotional competence in their adolescent

Logic Model

View the Logic Model for Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT).

Essential Components

The essential components of Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT) include:

  • Designed to help parents develop stronger relationships with their adolescents by learning how to:
    • Become more emotionally responsive
    • Connect with their young person when the young person is emotional and to use this as an opportunity to teach emotional awareness, understanding, and regulation rather than as a time to withhold attention or punish
    • Reflect on the influences of their family of origin on their parenting style
    • Understand the impact of emotionally dismissive versus emotion coaching parenting styles
    • Recognize "bids for connection" the young person makes and be emotionally responsive at these times
    • Manage their own experience of rejection and loss as the young person individuates and is, at times, harsh and rejecting of their parent
    • Shift their parenting skills to be supportive and assist with guiding the young person rather than controlling the young person
    • Manage strong emotions such as sadness, anxiety, and anger in themselves and assist their adolescent to do so
    • If necessary, assist the young person to solve problems and negotiate limits around the young person's behavior
    • Consider parents' own well-being and take care of themselves in order to better undertake the important role of parenting

Program Delivery

Parent/Caregiver Services

Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT) directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:

  • Parent of a 10-18 year old, especially if there are relationship difficulties with their teen; the parent uses harsh criticism and punishment in response to their teen' expression of emotion.

Recommended Intensity:

2-hour sessions weekly

Recommended Duration:

For a community group (lower need), 6 weekly sessions are required to deliver the program. 1-2 booster sessions are also recommended for all groups at bimonthly intervals.

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

  • Community Daily Living Setting
  • Hospital
  • Outpatient Clinic
  • Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
  • School Setting (Including: Day Care, Day Treatment Programs, etc.)
  • Virtual (Online, Telephone, Video, Zoom, etc.)

Homework

Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT) includes a homework component:

Each week exercises are recommended, however, these are optional. All parents are encouraged to try out the skills taught in the group at home and to bring back examples for discussion and further role play.

Languages

Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT) has materials available in languages other than English:

Arabic, Chinese, German, Norwegian, Vietnamese

For information on which materials are available in these languages, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed at the bottom of this page).

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

A room with chairs for 6-14 participants, equipment to share USB videos, white board and (ideally) 2 facilitators. Program can be delivered online.

Manuals and Training

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

Ideally, university qualifications in a discipline such as psychology, social work, occupational therapy, psychiatry, nursing, speech-language therapy, teaching or medicine

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

Program Manual Information:

  • Havighurst, S. S., Harley, A. E., Kehoe, C., & Pizarro, E. (2012). Tuning in to Teens: Emotionally intelligent parenting program manual. The University of Melbourne.

Manuals can be purchased through our website and are a requisite for attending a training. Manuals cannot be purchased without attending a training.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact:
Training Type/Location:

Training is provided online. Training may also be delivered in person either in Melbourne onsite at the University of Melbourne or in the location requested by those requiring training. There is a training team who travels to deliver the Tuning in to Teens workshops.

Number of days/hours:

Online: Three 4-hour sessions for a total of 12 hours

In person: 2 days for a total of 14 hours.

Implementation Information

Pre-Implementation Materials

There are no pre-implementation materials to measure organizational or provider readiness for Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT).

Formal Support for Implementation

There is formal support available for implementation of Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT) as listed below:

The Training Manager, along with other team members, provides implementation supervision and support to agencies that are setting up Tuning in to Teens programs. The program staff can provide support on implementation of the program within a tailored setting. They have extensive experience in doing this across a wide range of community and clinical contexts. Ongoing supervision can also be provided specifically for individuals or organizations. Monthly, free online supervisions are available for trained facilitators.

Fidelity Measures

There are fidelity measures for Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT) as listed below:

Self-report fidelity checklists are provided in the Tuning in to Teens manual and are completed after each session.

Implementation Guides or Manuals

There are no implementation guides or manuals for Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT).

Research on How to Implement the Program

Research has not been conducted on how to implement Tuning in to Teens™ (TINT).

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

Child Welfare Outcome: Child/Family Well-Being

Kehoe, C. E., Havighurst, S. S., & Harley, A. E. (2014). Tuning in to Teens: Improving parent emotion socialization to reduce youth internalizing difficulties. Social Development, 23(2), 413–431. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12060

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 449

Population:

  • Age — 10–13 years; Parents: Mean=44.1 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — Children: Not specified; Parents: 90% Caucasian, 8% Asian, and 2% African
  • Gender — Children: 49% Male; Parents: 200 Female and 25 Male
  • Status — Participants were parents and children with recruited through schools.

Location/Institution: Melbourne, Australia

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of the Tuning in to Teens (TINT) parenting program in improving emotion socialization practices in parents of preadolescents and reducing youth internalizing difficulties. Participants were randomized into TINT intervention or a control group Measures utilized include the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Emotions as a Child Scales (EAC), the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS), and the Spence Child Anxiety Scale for Parents (SCAS-P). Results indicate that TINT parents reported significant improvements in parents’ internalizing difficulties and reductions in parents’ difficulties with emotion awareness and regulation at post-intervention follow-up. Both parents and youth in the TINT sample reported significant reductions in parents’ dismissing responses to the young person’s emotions, but there was no change for control dyads. TINT parents reported significant reductions in youth anxiety and depressive symptoms compared to control parents. Limitations include control group parents were not offered an intervention on a waitlist basis; concerns about the reliability of self-report measures; and lack of generalizability of findings due to youth coming from predominantly white, middle-to-higher income two-parent families.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: Approximately 8–10 months.

Havighurst, S. S., Kehoe, C. E., & Harley, A. E. (2015). Tuning in to Teens: Improving parental responses to anger and reducing youth externalizing behavior problems. Journal of Adolescence, 42, 148–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.04.005

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 449

Population:

  • Age — Children: 10–13 years; Parents: Mean=44.1 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — Children: Not specified; Parents: 90% Caucasian, 8% Asian, and 2% African
  • Gender — Children: 49% Male; Parents: 200 Female and 25 Male
  • Status — Participants were parents and children with recruited through schools.

Location/Institution: Melbourne, Australia

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used the same sample as Kehoe et al. (2014). The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of the Tuning in to Teens (TINT) program in improving emotion socialization practices in parents and whether this reduced family conflict and youth externalizing difficulties. Participants were randomized into intervention and control conditions and 225 primary caregiving parents, and 224 youth took part in the study. Measures utilized include the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Emotions as a Child Scales (EAC), the Family Conflict Scale (FCS), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Results indicate that intervention parents reported they were less dismissing of youth sadness, anger and anxiety compared to control parents. Intervention youth also reported significant reductions in parents' dismissing anger and anxiety, compared to control youth who reported no change. Both intervention and control youth reported no change in parents' dismissing sadness. Both parents and youth from the intervention condition reported a significant reduction in family conflict at follow-up, compared with control participants who reported no change. Finally, significant interactions between time and condition were found for parent-and youth-reported externalizing behavior problems, which indicated greater reductions for the intervention group. Limitations include lack of generalizability of the results due to using a relatively middle-class sample from homogenous ethnic backgrounds who self-selected to participate, and concerns about reliability on self-reported measures.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: Approximately 8–10 months.

Kehoe, C. E., Havighurst, S. S., & Harley, A. E. (2015). Somatic complaints in early adolescence: The role of parents' emotion socialization. Journal of Early Adolescence, 35(7), 966–989. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431614547052

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 449

Population:

  • Age — Children: 10–13 years; Parents: Mean=44.1 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — Children: Not specified; Parents: 90% Caucasian, 8% Asian, and 2% African
  • Gender — Children: 49% Male; Parents: 200 Female and 25 Male
  • Status — Participants were parents and children recruited through schools.

Location/Institution: Melbourne, Australia

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used the same sample as Kehoe et al. (2014). The purpose of the study was to examine the efficacy of the Tuning in to Teens (TINT) parenting program in reducing youth somatic complaints (SC) using both baseline and 10 month follow-up data. Participants were randomized into intervention and control conditions and 225 primary caregiving parents, and 224 youth took part in the study. Measures utilized include the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Youth Self-Report version, the Emotions as a Child Scales (EAC), the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS), and the Spence Child Anxiety Scale for Parents (SCAS-P). Results indicate that intervention parents reported changes in parents’ awareness and regulation of emotion and emotion socialization practices, and this resulted in reduced youth somatic complaints compared to the control group at post-intervention follow-up. Results also reported intervention youth-reported SC were unrelated to parents’ difficulties with emotion awareness/regulation and parental SC, and parent-reported youth SC were unrelated to parent-reported parent emotion dismissing compared to the control group at follow-up. Parent emotion dismissing and parents’ difficulties in emotion awareness/regulation were however, positively correlated with youth negative affect and anxiety (parent and youth report) when compared to the control group at follow-up. Limitations include concerns about the reliability of self-report measures, participants were not blind to condition, and parents selected to take part in the intervention reported greater youth SC at baseline.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: Approximately 8–10 months.

Kehoe, C. E., Havighurst, S. S., & Harley, A. E. (2020). Tuning in to Teens: Investigating moderators of program effects and mechanisms of change of an emotion focused group parenting program. Developmental Psychology, 56(3), 623–637. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000875

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 449

Population:

  • Age — Children: 10–13 years; Parents: Mean=44.1 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — Children: Not specified; Parents: 90% Caucasian, 8% Asian, and 2% African
  • Gender — Children: 49% Male; Parents: 200 Female and 25 Male
  • Status — Participants were parents and children recruited through schools.

Location/Institution: Melbourne, Australia

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used the same sample as Kehoe et al. (2014). The purpose of the study was to examine moderators of program effects and mechanisms of change in Tuning in to Teens (TINT), to determine whether TINT would be effective in improving adolescent internalizing difficulties. Participants were randomized into intervention (TINT) and control conditions. Measures utilized include the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), the Emotions as a Child Scale (EAC), the Spence Child Anxiety Scale for Parents (SCAS-P), the Spence Child Anxiety Scale (SCAS), the Child Depression Inventory parent report (CDI:P), and the Child Depression Inventory child self-report (CDI:S). Results indicate greater benefits for intervention subgroups with high pre-intervention scores on youth anxiety. Parental internalizing difficulties and parental difficulties in emotion awareness/regulation did not moderate program effects. Mediation analyses supported emotion socialization theory and showed parents’ who participated in the TINT parenting program reported improvements in their own awareness/regulation and emotion socialization, which were, in turn, related to reductions in youth internalizing difficulties. Limitations include lack of generalizability of the findings due to the low number of very low-income parents, the low number of fathers and younger parents, and the inclusion of mostly two-parent families; school level randomization resulted in two groups who differed in parent-reports of baseline youth internalizing difficulties; and reliance on self-report measures.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: Approximately 8–10 months.

Rolock, N., Ocasio, K., White, K., Havighurst, S., Cho, Y., Fong, R., Marra, L., & Faulkner, M. (2021). Tuning in to Teens (TINT) with adoptive parents and guardians in the US: the replication phase of intervention research. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 15(1), 22–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2020.1846660

Type of Study: Randomized controlled trial
Number of Participants: 1212

Population:

  • Age — Not specified
  • Race/Ethnicity — Intervention Group: 56% BIPOC; Comparison Group: 49% BIPOC
  • Gender — Intervention Group: 48% Female; Comparison Group: 50% Female
  • Status — Participants were recruited from the State of New Jersey Department of Children and Families.

Location/Institution: New Jersey

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to conduct an efficacy evaluation of an adapted version of Tuning in to Teens (TINT) program in a New Jersey child population, aimed at teaching caregiver skills in emotion coaching while helping them to reduce their dismissive or harsh parenting responses and regulate their own emotions. Participants were randomized to either a comparison group that received services as usual or the TINT program. Measures utilized include the Behavioral Problem Index (BPI), Family Functioning Subscale of the Protective Factor Survey, (PSF-FF), and the Belonging and Emotional Security Tool for Adoptive Parents and Guardians (BEST-AG). In addition, other study developed surveys were utilized as well. Results indicate that TINT was effective at reducing the degree to which parents and guardians are struggling, especially for those who expressed difficulty with managing their child’s behavior. Limitations include concerns about generalizability beyond the state where the research was conducted, that only a small proportion of the eligible population participated in the research, high attrition rates, and that the small study observation window was too short to observe changes.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 6–8 months.

Additional References

Havighurst, S. S. & Kehoe, C. E. (2021). Tuning in to Kids: An emotion coaching approach to working with parents. In J. L. Allen, D. J. Hawes, & C. A. Essau (Eds.), Family-based intervention for child and adolescent mental health: A core competencies approach (pp. 269–283). Cambridge University Press.

Havighurst, S. S., Radovini, A., Hao, B. & Kehoe, C. E. (2020). Emotion focused parenting interventions for prevention and treatment of child and adolescent mental health problems: A review of recent research. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 33(6), 586–601. https://doi.org/10.1097/YCO.0000000000000647

Parker, R. (2007). Tuning in to Kids: Emotionally intelligent parenting - program spotlight. Family Relationships Quarterly, 12, 15–17.

Contact Information

Sophie Havighurst, BA Hons, Dip Clin Psych, PhD
Title: Professor
Agency/Affiliation: Tuning in to Kids, Mindful, University of Melbourne
Website: www.tuningintokids.org.au
Email:

Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed by CEBC: July 2023

Date Program Content Last Reviewed by Program Staff: August 2021

Date Program Originally Loaded onto CEBC: May 2016