Speaker
Description
Authors: Amy M. Smith Slep (New York University), Kimberly A. Rhoades (New York University)
Background: Although early childhood parenting programs have established public health benefits, voluntary and entirely self-directed programs present a challenge of engaging parents to where they receive a sufficient dose. 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 remains a challenge.
Methods: We will present initial findings from a factorial optimization trial using the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) framework. The study included 802 parents with 1.5 to 3-year-old children. There were four experimental factors; each corresponds to the presence vs. absence of an engagement-focused element: (1) motivational enhancements (ME), (2) simplification (S) of intervention content, (3) gamification (G), and (4) low engagement nudges (LEN). We used Bayesian analyses to optimize the intervention. We then used structural equation modeling in Mplus to examine each engagement-focused element's individual and interactive mediated effects on change in parenting behaviors via parent engagement.
Results: Overall, parents reported significant decreases in overreactive parenting, inconsistent parenting, corporal punishment, and increases in parental warmth. The optimized intervention on overall parenting (a composite including each parenting construct listed above) included simplification, gamification, and low engagement nudges. Parents receiving this combination of engagement-focused intervention elements were 90% likely to demonstrate improvements in parenting. The most substantial improvement in parenting was reported for inconsistent parenting. Those assigned to either motivational enhancements alone or the combination of simplification and gamification showed the most consistent declines in inconsistent parenting, with over 99% likelihood that the posterior probability was less than zero.
Discussion: EFP shows promise, and as a free online intervention, has tremendous potential to reduce rates of violence at a very low cost per participant. Adding program elements designed to increase meaningful parent engagement with the program may enhance the effects of EFP.
| Conflict of interest | We have no conflict of interest to disclose |
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