Clinical trial NCT05689736: Optimizing an Evidence-Based, Disseminable, Free Internet-Based Parenting Program
Official title: Optimizing an Evidence-Based, Disseminable, Free Internet-Based Parenting Program
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Parenting Practices
Lead sponsor: New York University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Westat
First posted: 2023-01-19
Enrollment: 859
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 99
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: FACTORIAL
Intervention model description: Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) factorial experiment. There are 4 experimental factors; each corresponds to the presence vs. absence of an engagement-focused intervention element. This experiment enables the estimation of the individual and combined effects of each element.
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The CDC's Essentials for Parenting Toddlers and Preschoolers program (EFP) is a free Internet resource with the potential to break down barriers to population-wide access to scientifically-based parenting interventions. EFP has considerable promise, but parental engagement, a major issue in the success of universal parenting interventions, remains a challenge. The objective of the proposed research is to optimize EFP by identifying engagement-focused intervention elements to add to EFP that enhance its effects on parenting skills.

Detailed description: The study is a longitudinal factorial optimization trial in a community sample of 800 parents with 1.5- to 3-year-old children. There are 4 experimental factors; each corresponds to the presence vs. absence of an engagement-focused intervention element. This experiment enables the estimation of the individual and combined effects of each element. The specific aims follow.

Aim 1: Optimize the effects of EFP on parenting skills by determining which combination of the four experimental engagement-focused intervention elements results in the greatest success of EFP, as reflected in increasing parent warmth and reducing corporal punishment, overreactive and lax discipline.

Aim 2: Determine the extent to which boosted meaningful parent engagement in EFP is the mechanism driving the effects of the four engagement-focused intervention elements on parenting skills, and which aspect(s) of engagement (e.g., content consumption; behavioral skills practice) are the key mediators that translate the effects of the four engagement-focused intervention elements into improved parenting.

Aim 3: Examine parent (e.g., change readiness; race) and child characteristics (e.g., externalizing behavior; sex) to determine if the optimal intervention package differs among subgroups. Cracking the code of providing parents with an intervention that they actually use, and that improves parenting, could have far-reaching effects (e.g., improving population-level child outcomes).

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

1. 18- to 36-month-old child
2. ≥18-year-old parent
3. Internet access
4. willingness to commit to intervention/assessment procedures
5. proficiency in speaking and reading English

Exclusion Criteria:

1. child older than 36 months
2. parent younger than 18 years
3. no access to internet
4. not willing to commit to intervention/assessment procedures OR
5. not proficient with speaking and reading English

Primary outcomes:
measure: Parent Behavior Inventory, item average of Supportive/Engaged subscale
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale, item average of Corporal Punishment subscale
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Parenting Scale, item average of Overreactivity subscale
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Parenting Scale, item average of Laxness subscale
timeFrame: 6 months
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Rockville
country: United States
facility: Westat, Inc.
state: Maryland
Study officials:
affiliation: New York University
name: Michael F Lorber, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: