Investigating a Brief Virtual Seminar Series for Parents of Children Ages 2-12

Overview

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine whether a brief positive parenting seminar series delivered virtually helps teach parents additional tools and strategies to support healthy child development, encourage good behavior, and manage misbehavior, while improving parenting practices and child outcomes for parents of children ages 2-12. The main questions it aims to answer are whether parents are satisfied with the intervention and find the strategies helpful and acceptable, whether the intervention leads to changes in parenting behaviors (e.g., positive parenting) and child outcomes (e.g., emotional and behavioral problems), and how removing the active discussion from the seminars impacts parents' ability to improve their parenting skills and their child's outcomes. Researchers will compare three groups: parents receiving the seminars with a group discussion, parents receiving the seminars without a group discussion, and parents on a waitlist. This will help determine if group discussions lead to greater improvements in parenting practices and child outcomes. Participants attended three online parenting seminars via telehealth (if assigned to a seminar group). They completed surveys before, during, and after the seminars to share their experiences and provide feedback. Participants in the waitlist group completed surveys at the beginning and end of the study, and will participate in the seminars after the study period.

Despite the effectiveness of parenting interventions in promoting adaptive child-rearing behaviors and preventing youth internalizing and externalizing problems, our current model for mental health treatment that involves a highly trained mental health professional providing services in a one-on-one format at a clinic, private office, or health-care facility is not sustainable. As such, there is an urgent need to identify ways to increase the accessibility and scalability of mental health services to reduce the well-documented gap between children and families who need mental health services and those who are able to access them. Therefore, the goal of the current randomized controlled trial is to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of a brief (i.e., 3 session) seminar series for parents with children between the ages of 2 and 12, which was offered via telehealth to increase accessibility. Additionally, this project will evaluate whether the ability for parents to ask questions and discuss skill implementation with a mental health provider is necessary for treatment effectiveness, given that programs that do not require a provider for implementation have the potential for greater scalability. After completing the baseline survey, eligible parents were randomly assigned to condition using block randomization. For parents assigned to the intervention-as-usual condition (i.e., 90-minute condition), seminars were delivered live by two masters-level therapists who were fully accredited in Selected Child Triple P. The seminars consisted of 60-minutes of seminar content (i.e., discussion of various parenting strategies), followed by a 30-minute question-and-answer period. Participation was encouraged by co-leaders throughout the seminars and the question-and-answer period. For parents assigned to the intervention without an active discussion component (i.e., 60-minute condition), seminar content was pre-recorded by the same two co-leaders who led the seminars live to ensure standardization of the material and to create an environment focused on receiving information rather than active participation. During these meetings, participants were not allowed to unmute and were only able to message the hosts of the meeting (i.e., the leader). The same seminar content was covered in both intervention conditions. The seminars included the Power of Positive Parenting, Raising Confident, Competent Children, and Raising Resilient Children. Approximately 2-months and 4-months after attending the final seminar, parents were contacted to complete a 30-minute follow-up survey for which they were compensated. The dates that parents attended each seminar were recorded and parents were contacted approximately 2-months and 4-months after their last attended seminar (or their last opportunity to attend a seminar if they did not attend all three seminars). Parents in the waitlist control condition were contacted approximately 2-months and 4-months after the last seminar was offered to those assigned to the intervention conditions in their enrollment cohort.