Family functioning and child mental health
reductions in distress
More distal outcomes of family functioning and child mental health were also assessed. There were strong consistent treatment effects for family distress (BFDS). Although the intervention is not intended to attenuate family crises, participants in ACT are encouraged to change their relationship to their internal and external experiences. The BFDS asks parents to provide a broad appraisal of how difficult their current situation is and post-intervention, parents might have appraised their circumstances in a different light. It is also possible that reductions in distress occurred following experiences that were not sufficiently captured in our process measures. For instance, participants engaged in positive, supportive, and relaxing activities, possibly providing a sense of greater ability to cope with stressors or a temporary sense of relief, translating into shifts in their experience of distress. Further, through engaging with fellow group members in similar situations, and sharing experiences of distress, it is possible that participants received important informal social support that helped them to manage the stressors in their lives. Results do not support the hypothesis that a brief ACT workshop would result in changes in more general family functioning and child mental health. The factors affecting mental health problems are complex and multifaceted, with many unrelated to parenting behavior or parent mental health, and require more direct management to result in improvement (