This research study is conducted by the Applied Psychology Laboratory of the Department of Psychology at the University of Crete in collaboration with the Center for Research and Studies (UCRC) of the University of Crete. It is part of the doctoral thesis of Iouliani Pachiti who is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Psychology under the scientific supervision of Dr. Panagiota Dimitropoulou, Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology. This study is part of the European Consortium Neo-PRISM-C which is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (Project No. 813546). The research has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Crete (REC-UOC, Reference No. 51/25.02.2020).

The research study involves the development and implementation of 'Child ViReal Support' intervention program for children aged 9-12 years old with an ADHD diagnosis and their parents.

Prior, during and after the implementation of the intervention program, you and your child will be asked to fill in some questionnaires that are widely being used in similar research studies. In addition, your child will be asked to complete some gamified cognitive tasks on a computer.

More information about these tasks can be found in the field Information for Parents/Carers.

You and your child have the opportunity to participate in 'Child ViReal Support' intervention program free of charge. Your participation is expected to provide you as parents and your child immediate benefits as:

• you will be trained in optimal parental practices, which are based on widely used parent training programs that have been shown to have positive results in managing the behaviors of children with attention deficits with/or without hyperactivity

• your child will be individually trained in cognitive, behavioral and emotional skills with techniques based on the cognitive-behavioral approach, while receiving training in the cognitive function of attention with the use of virtual reality (VR) technology, which is an innovative practice for Greece

At the same time, however, the participation of both you and your child in the research study of which the 'Child ViReal Support' intervention program is part is considered particularly important since the results of this study will contribute to a better understanding of the psycho-emotional and learning effects of attention deficits in children. In addition, we will have the opportunity to study the effectiveness of the intervention program in improving the cognitive, behavioral and emotional skills of children with ADHD and in training and teaching you as parents effective practices related to the difficulties presented by your children.

Finally, it will be possible to investigate whether VR technology can be a reliable method to be used in the future as part of interventuon programs for population with similar characteristics.

We would be delighted to have you be a part of this research effort!

If you agree to take part in the research study, you will need to follow the three phases described below:

Phase 1 - First, you will be asked to complete some questionnaires, which are widely used in similar research studies involving children with attention deficits/ADHD and their parents. These questionnaires consist of questions about your family's demographics, your parenting style and your child-rearing methods, as well as questions about your emotional state.

Phase 2 - If you agree, you will be able to participate free of charge in a group psychoeducation program for parents of children with attention deficits/ADHD, which consists of 8 weekly sessions of 1.5 hours per session. More information about the program can be found in the field Intervention Program.

Phase 3 - After the completion of the intervention program you will be asked to answer again the same questionnaires as in Phase 1. After 3 months from the last assessment, the research team will contact you again to complete these questionnaires for the last time.

If your child, after your and his/her consent, agree to participate in the research study will need to follow the procedure as described below:

Phase 1 - First, s/he will be asked to fill out some questionnaires that include questions about his/her emotional and social state, as well as his/her perceptions of their interaction with you as a parent and your parenting style. In addition, the child will be evaluated with some gamified cognitive tasks on the computer that are mainly being used for the study of attention and they have strong elements of gamification making them enjoyable and interesting for children. During the execution of these cognitive tasks, eye-movement measurements will be obtained using an eye-tracker, a completely safe, non-invasive and acceptable method, widely being used in research studies with children, adolescents and adults. This procedure is expected to be completed in one or two meetings depending on the time the child will need for every task and his/her fatigue levels.

More information about children's assessments can be found in the field Information for Parents/Carers.

Phase 2 - If you agree, your child will have the opportunity to participate free of charge in an individualized intervention program, which consists of 15 weekly sessions of 45-50 minutes per session. More information about this program can be found in the field Intervention Program.

Phase 3 - After the completion of the intervention program, your child will be assessed again, as in the Phase 1, by completing the questionnaires and cognitive tasks on the computer during which eye-movement measurements will again be taken. After 3 months have passed since the last assessment, the research team will contact you again and your child will be assessed for one last time using the assessment methods described in Phase 1.

In this study can take part children aged 9-12 years old with an ADHD diagnosis who:

• can speak and understand Greek language, both children and their parents

• have not been diagnosed with another disorder or comorbid difficulties (e.g., autism spectrum disorder)

• neither the children themselves nor you as parents have previously participated in an intervention program based on behavioral or cognitive-behavioral approach

• are not taking any medication

Your participation and your child's participation is completely voluntary. This means that you can withdraw from the research study and the intervention program at any time you wish without having to provide any explanation for this decision and without any cost or consequence for you or your child. In this case you can request, if you wish, that the data and information we have collected about you and your child be deleted. Your request to delete the information you have given us will be able to be fullfilled within one week after the research team has been informed. You can contact the research team at the contact details listed here.

It is necessary to have the parents'/carers' written informed consent for the child's participation in the research study and the intervention program. The child will be informed about the research study and the intervention program, as well as for what s/he will need to do during the study through a separate informed consent form which they will be asked to sign before the Phase 1 of the research study is carried out. If they do not wish to participate, then the process cannot proceed. The same applies if the child initially agrees to participate, but changes his/her mind later.

The informed consent form contains all necessary and important information about the research study, its purpose, and what you and your child will be asked to do during your participation in the research study and the intervention program. It also includes information regarding research ethics (anonymity of participants, benefits, costs, use of data etc.) which are also mentioned on this website in the Frequently Asked Questions. The consent form will be given to you by the research team prior to the start of the study and data collection (prior to Phase 1) so that you can read it and ask any questions or concerns you may have to the researcher before you decide whether you would like to participate or not. If you decide to participate, then you will be asked to sign it and you will receive a copy.

In addition, your child will be informed through a separate informed consent form, which has been modified in simpler terms for children, about the purpose of the study, the procedure to be followed, the intervention program. If s/he agrees to take part in the program, then will be asked to sign it as well.

Essentially, signing the informed consent form states that you consent for yourself and your child to take part in the research study and the intervention program.

Signing the informed consent form is necessary for the participation of both you and your child in the research study. Therefore, if you do not wish to sign the informed consent form, you are not able to proceed either you or your child in participating in the research study or the intervention program.

The data from the questionnaires that you will fill in as parents/carers mainly relate to demographic data (e.g., child's gender/age, parents' educational/socio-economic level, number of family members etc.). You will also be asked to answer questionnaires regarding your parenting style, the child-rearing methods and practices you use, as well as questionnaires regarding your emotional state such as the anxiety/stress you may be experiencing (see question-answer 4).

The research team will also collect data and information from your child regarding his/her emotional and social state (e.g., how s/he feels in certain situations, how s/he interacts with his/her peers etc.), as well as his/her perceptions of the interactions within your family and your parenting style. In addition, during the gamified cognitive tasks, data will be collected mainly concerning his/her reaction time/accuracy to stimuli that will be displayed on the computer screen. At the same time, during these cognitive tasks, eye-movement measurements will be recorded and these data will be in the form of simple coordinates at various points on the computer screen.

During the intervention program, you will be asked to answer some questions about how you felt about each session and the content of the program, while your child will answer questions about how s/he felt about the individualized sessions and the use of VR technology.

All data and information will be anonymous (see question-answer 13 for more details). The only exception is the informed consent form (see questions-answers 9 and 10), where you will have to fill in your name, your child's name and your signature.

Information and data obtained about you and your child during the research study will be recorded in coded form (anonymously) in order to ensure the anonymity of the data collected, stored, analyzed and archived. The code number will be known only to the responsible researcher, Ms. Iouliani Pachiti who will be present during the assessments, as well as to the Scientific Supervisor, Dr. Panagiota Dimitropoulou and under no circumstances will be publicly disseminated. The recording of the data in computer's statistical software will be done by using the coded form in such a way that it will not be possible to reveal your identity or your child's identity to third parties.

Files containing your contact details that will be obtained in order for the research team to be able to contact you, as well as data from the questionnaires and the evaluations of you and your child will be kept under the responsibility and supervision of the Scientific Supervisor and the PhD Candidate and will be locked in a safe and secure place at the Applied Psychology Laboratory of the University of Crete’s Research Center for the Humanities, the Social and Education Sciences.

In addition, all electroni files with coded data will be password-protected, while any computer used to enter these data will also be password-protected to prevent any unauthorized users from accessing them. Only the members of the research team will have access to the passwords and your data.

Finally, it is important to mention that the University of Crete’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) has also been informed for this specific research study. For any complaints that may arise regarding the management of your personal data, you can contact the DPO (dop@uoc.gr).

The Research Assistants who will implement the parents' program and the child's program will know your personal information (name, surname, child's name) as there will be weekly meetings/sessions between them and you/your child. Research team members are committed to respect the confidentiality of all information you will provide us both during the research part of the study (data collection) and during the intervention program.

Moreover, although we will ask the participants in the parents' group psychoeducation program not to disclose any information that would come to their knowledge during the research study, we cannot guarantee the confidentiality of all. However, in order to ensure that confidentiality is maintained as far as possible, we will ask all participants including you to commit that (a) you will not disclose any information that will come to your knowledge during the course of the study, (b) even if you share or use information that will come to your knowledge during the course of the study you will not mention either the name or other information about other persons involved in the study and (c) you will not report that you obtained the information during your participation in this study.

Data and information collected about you and your child will be stored anonymously (in coded form) in computer’s statistical software in order to be analyzed and to derive results related to the research questions. Research records/data and results will be exclusively used for research purposes in the context of this specific study and upon its completion, it will be determined how these data will be managed and destroyed following European Union’s guidelines.

Results from this research study will be used in scientific publications, seminar reports and presentations. The results will be presented in a concise group format (e.g., 60 children 9-12 years old with ADHD and their parents participated in an intervention program) and your name or identity will not be identified in any publication, report or presentation.

Your participation in ther research study gives you the opportunity to participate free of charge in the 'Child ViReal Support' intervention program, which is expected to provide immediate benefits for both you and your child (see question-answer 3).

Also, during the intervention program you will receive important material after every session which we expect will provide you with knowledge and techniques that you will be able to use in your everyday life. Your child will also receive material after each session that s/he can use in order to cope with the difficulties s/he might present, as well as a certificate of participation in the intervention program.

Your participation in the study does not entail any cost or burden for you, except perhaps from the time you will have to spend on it, since any costs that may arise (e.g., moving to the place where the research and psychoeducational/intervention sessions will be held) are expected to be covered by the research project.

Assessments and data collection:

• It is expected that completion of questionnaires by you as parents will take approximately 20-30 minutes.

• Data collection from your child using the questionnaires and the computerized cognitive tasks is expected to take 120-150 minutes and it can be done in one or two meetings depending on your child's mood. The duration of data collection depends on several factors. You can see questions-answers 4 and 5 in case you are interested as well as the field Information for Parents/Carers.

• The assessments that will take place during and at the end of the intervention program (Phase 2), as well as after 3 months (Phase 3) are expected to last 20-30 minutes for you and 50-60 minutes for your child.

Intervention program:

• The parents' group psychoeducation program consists of 8 weekly sessions of 1.5 hour per session, while the child's individualized intervention program consists of 15 weekly sessions 45-50 minutes per session.

For Rethymnon's residents, the assessments/evaluations of both children and parents will take place at the Applied Psychology Laboratory at the University of Crete's Center for Research and Studies. You can find the location on the map here.

Also, the weekly meetings for the parent's group psychoeducation program will take place at the Student Cultural Center XENIA at 46 Psarrou street, Rethymno, 741 00 (map). The child's individual intervention program will take place at the Applied Psychology Laboratory (map).

For Heraklion's residents, both the assessments/evaluations and the weekly sessions for the parents' group program and the children's individual intervention program will take place is spaces secured at the Kalokairinos Cultural Foundation (address: 9 Monis Agkarathou, Heraklion, 71202). You can find the location on the map here.

The completion of the questionnaires by you and your child, in exceptional cases, can be done remotely during a teleconference with the PhD Candidate. However, the child's evaluation with the computerized cognitive tasks, due to the use of special equipment, cannot be done remotely (e.g., online).

Moreover, parents' group sessions cannot be held remotely (e.g., online), except in exceptional circumstances (e.g., COVID-19) where an online meeting could be arranged. Children's individual sessions, precisely because of the use of virtual reality (VR) equipment), cannot be done remotely.

During the evaluations at the Applied Psychology Laboratory or at the Kalokairinos Cultural Foundation, all precautionary measures against COVID-19 will be followed by both the research team and the participants. The use of a protective mask and an antiseptic gel before and after the participants' evaluation will be mandatory. In addition, the equipment and surfaces will be disinfected after the evaluation of each participant and before the start of the evaluation of a new participant, while the rooms will be properly ventilated.

The parents' group psychoeducation program will take place in rooms where the necessary distances between the participants will be kept and during the sessions the use of a protective mask and antiseptic gel will be mandatory. Also, during the child's individual meetings with the research assistant, all precautionary measures will be taken to protect our young participants from COVID-19 (protective mask, disinfection of VR equipment, room ventilation).

Moreover, if any of the participants gets infected by COVID-19 during the intervention program, s/he will inform the research team in order to follow the procedure foreseen (inform other participants etc.).

If you wish to participate in the study, register here.

You can contact us by filling out the contact form in the Contact us field. You can also contact us via email or phone call using the details listed in the Contact us field.

We will be happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have regarding the research study and the 'Child ViReal Support' intervention program!