Parent Engagement Package: Initial Testing of Strategies to Increase Participation in Parenting Interventions

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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This study evaluated the effectiveness of strategies for engaging parents into parenting programs. Engagement strategies included a booklet showing testimonial quotes and photos from prior participants, a recommendation to attend for the child's teacher, and a motivational call from the parenting program provider. It was hypothesized that the combination of engagement strategies would increase attendance at a parenting intervention compared to receiving only a promotional brochure and research interview.

Official Title
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Participation in Preventive Parenting Interventions

Conditions
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Patient Compliance

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Promotional Brochure
* Other: Family Testimonial Flyer
* Other: Teacher Endorsement
* Other: Provider Engagement Call


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Is the biological or adoptive mother of a child in kindergarten or 3rd grade at the participating school (i.e., target child); The target child lived with the mother at least half of the time; The mother spoke English or Spanish; Exclusion Criteria: The target child changed schools; The mother reported the target child would be changing schools during the school year; The target child attended one of the participating schools during a previous cohort of the study.
Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Prevention
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Interventional Model Description: Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: 1) promotional brochure plus an attention-control research interview or 2) Package Engagement Package
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Active Comparator: Promotional Brochure<br>Participants in this condition received one of the strategies in the Parent Engagement Package: a promotional brochure with information about the parenting intervention being offered at their child's school, the Triple P Positive Parenting Program. This information included the location of meetings, free childcare, topics covered, choice of English or Spanish groups, meeting day and time, and an enrollment form. Parents who returned the enrollment form received a confirmation letter prior to the first parenting program session. | Other: Promotional Brochure<br>* Promotional brochure with information about the Triple P Positive Parenting Program and an enrollment form.<br>|
| Experimental: Parent Engagement Package<br>Participants in this condition received all engagement strategies in the Parent Engagement Package, which included: 1) the promotional brochure; 2) family testimonial flyer that included photos and quotes from prior participants; 3) teacher endorsement of the Triple P program; 4) provider engagement call to motivate parents to attend; and 5) phone reminders prior to each Triple P session. | Other: Promotional Brochure<br>* Promotional brochure with information about the Triple P Positive Parenting Program and an enrollment form.<br>Other: Family Testimonial Flyer<br>* Flyer that included quotes and photos from parents who had previously participated in the Triple P Positive Parenting Program and/or their children who participated in the free childcare.<br>Other: Teacher Endorsement<br>* Brief conversation between the parent and their child's teacher in which the teacher told the parent about the benefits of participating in the Triple P Positive Parenting Program and recommended the parent attend.<br>Other: Provider Engagement Call<br>* This was a manualized, 20-minute call from the Triple P Positive Parenting Program provider to a parent in which the provider elicited the parent's child-focused goals and showed how the parent's goals could be addressed by Triple P. The provider also helped the parent problem solve barriers to attendance and develop an action plan to handle common barriers (e.g., scheduling conflicts) as well as set session reminders.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Parenting Intervention Attendance | Number of sessions a caregiver from a student's family attended the parenting intervention, the Triple P Positive Parenting Program | Attendance was recorded by Triple P providers at each session, once per week for 8 weeks | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Parenting Intervention Enrollment | Whether or not a family enrolled in the Triple P Positive Parenting Program by completing an enrollment form or answering 'yes' to an enrollment question during the provider engagement call or attention-control research interview | from the date engagement strategies commenced until the date the Triple P Positive Parenting Program began, up to 7 weeks | 
| Parenting Intervention Homework Completion | Caregiver report of completion of Triple P Positive Parenting Program assignments between sessions | collected once per week for 7 weeks, at the beginning of each Triple P Positive Parenting Program sessions 2 through 8 | 
| Parenting Intervention Session Involvement | Provider reports of the extent to which a caregiver actively participated in each Triple P Positive Parenting Program session attended | collected once per week for 8 weeks, after each Triple P Positive Parenting Program session | 
| Child Behavior Problems | Teacher report of child behavior in the classroom | collected 1 week before Triple P session 1 and at Triple P post-test, which was 9 weeks after the first behavior reports were collected |