The goal of this study is to learn if the New Beginnings Podcast can help children whose parents are going through a divorce or separation. The podcast shares parenting strategies that have been shown to help in past in-person and online programs. This study will also look at how easy it is for parents to use the podcast and how helpful they find it. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Do parents find the podcast easy to use, helpful, and relevant? 2. Does listening to the podcast improve children's mental health? 3. Does the podcast help parents build stronger relationships with their children and reduce conflict between parents? Researchers will compare families who use the podcast to families on a waitlist to see if the podcast makes a difference. Participants will: 1. Listen to podcast episodes over the course of the study 2. Answer questions about their experiences with the podcast 3. Complete surveys about their child's well-being, their parenting, and family relationships This study will include 80 parents and their children.
The adult (parent) participants who are enrolled in the randomized clinical trial will receive a podcast-based program that teaches several parenting skills that have demonstrated efficacy and effectiveness for improving child adjustment after divorce in the short- and long- term in previous randomized trials. The anticipated risks are considered minimal and reasonable in relation to the anticipated benefit of an intervention tailored to help after separation/divorce. The child participants (aged 11-18, offspring of parent participants) will receive no direct benefits of participation but may receive indirect benefits from the proposed research through podcast-induced improvements in their parent's parenting (as described above).
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
80
Parents will listen to 5 episodes of the New Beginnings Podcast (NBP-P) over 5 weeks. They will listen to one episode per week.
Parents in the waitlist group will get access to the podcast after completion of the post-test survey or withdrawal from the study.
ASU Dept of Psychology
Tempe, Arizona, United States
RECRUITINGFeasibility of Intervention
Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM) The FIM assesses the extent to which an intervention can be successfully used or carried out in a given context or setting (Weiner et al., 2017). It includes 4 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1=Completely disagree to 5=Completely agree). Item responses are averaged (range 1-5); higher scores indicate greater perceived feasibility. Psychometric evaluation shows acceptable reliability and validity alongside AIM and IAM.
Time frame: Collected at Post-test only (Week 7) for Intervention Group Only
Usability of Intervention
Intervention Usability Scale (IUS) Usability of the intervention will be assessed using the Intervention Usability Scale (IUS), a 10-item self-report questionnaire adapted from the System Usability Scale (SUS). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 to 4, with response options reflecting increasing agreement. Item scores span the full possible range (0-4). Item responses are averaged to compute a mean usability score (range 0-4), with higher scores indicating greater perceived usability. Emerging psychometrics support a two-factor structure ("Usable" and "Learnable") alongside a reliable total score (Lyon et al., 2021).
Time frame: Collected at Post-test only (Week 7) for Intervention Group only
Acceptability of Intervention
Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM) The AIM assesses perceived acceptability of an intervention among intended users/implementers (Weiner et al., 2017). It contains 4 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1=Completely disagree to 5=Completely agree). Scores are typically averaged (range 1-5), with higher values indicating greater acceptability. Initial development and testing demonstrated strong content validity, structural validity, reliability, known-groups validity, and responsiveness
Time frame: Collected at Post-test only (Week 7) for Intervention Group only
Appropriateness of Intervention
Intervention Appropriateness Measure (IAM) The IAM assesses perceived appropriateness or fit of an intervention for a given setting, provider role, or target population (Weiner et al., 2017). It includes 4 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1=Completely disagree to 5=Completely agree). Item responses are averaged to produce a 1-5 score; higher values indicate the intervention is viewed as a better fit. Development work shows sound psychometric properties consistent with AIM and FIM.
Time frame: Collected at Post-test only (Week 7) for Intervention Group only
Child Internalizing Symptoms (Child-Report)
Child internalizing asymptoms will be assessed using BPM-Y, the youth self-report version of the Brief Problem Monitor (a 19-item short form derived from the CBCL/YSR). Subscales for Internalizing problems will be scored by summing responses to relevant items (0 = "not true," 1 = "somewhat true," 2 = "very true"), with higher totals indicating greater symptom severity. The BPM-Y is intended for youth (typically ages 11 and above) and provides a rapid, validated self-report of internalizing and externalizing behavior (Achenbach et al., 2011; Piper et al., 2014).
Time frame: Baseline (Week 0) and Post-Test (Week 7)
Child Internalizing Symptoms (Parent-Report)
Child internalizing symptoms will be assessed using the Brief Problem Monitor (BPM), a 19-item validated short-form version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) using parent-report. I The BPM parent-report yields an internalizing subscale scores based on responses (0 = "not true," 1 = "somewhat true," 2 = "very true") summed across relevant items. Higher scores reflect greater symptom severity.
Time frame: Baseline (Week 0) and Post-Test (Week 7)
Child Externalizing Symptoms (Parent-Report)
Child externalizing symptoms will be assessed using the Brief Problem Monitor (BPM), a 19-item validated short-form version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) using parent-report. The BPM parent-report yields an externalizing subscale scores based on responses (0 = "not true," 1 = "somewhat true," 2 = "very true") summed across relevant items. Higher scores reflect greater symptom severity.
Time frame: Baseline (Week 0) and Post-Test (Week 7)
Child Externalizing Problems (Child-Report)
Child externalizing asymptoms will be assessed using BPM-Y, the youth self-report version of the Brief Problem Monitor (a 19-item short form derived from the CBCL/YSR). Subscales for externalizing problems will be scored by summing responses to relevant items (0 = "not true," 1 = "somewhat true," 2 = "very true"), with higher totals indicating greater symptom severity. The BPM-Y is intended for youth (typically ages 11 and above) and provides a rapid, validated self-report of internalizing and externalizing behavior (Achenbach et al., 2011; Piper et al., 2014).
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Time frame: Baseline (Week 0) and Post-Test (Week 7)