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Authors: Carlie J. Sloan (Arizona State University), Gregory M. Fosco (Pennsylvania State University)
Background: Digital technologies are emerging as an effective modality for delivering evidence-based interventions (Brietenstein et al., 2014). Yet, when and why parents engage with digital intervention tools in their daily life remains largely unknown. The current study assessed barriers and promoters of daily engagement with the Family Relationships Toolkit, a brief family-based intervention delivered via mobile application.
Methods: Thirty-six parents ($M_{age}$ = 41.77) of adolescents ($M_{age}$ = 12.86) participated in a pilot study of the Family Relationships Toolkit, which included three components— a morning routine builder, a parental monitoring exercise, and a set of family games. For 14 consecutive evenings, parents received surveys assessing whether they had used each component of the intervention, barriers to use (for components not used), and questions about daily mood and family functioning.
Results: Daily engagement ranged from zero to 14 days ($M_{routine}$ = 5.56 days, $M_{monitoring}$ = 2.03 days, $M_{family\ games}$ = 2.89 days). The most often cited barriers to engagement were “My family didn’t need help from this activity today,” (43-65% of days) and “This activity was not relevant to my family today” (35-54% of days). The prevalence of other barriers varied by component. Multilevel logistic regressions suggested that parents were less likely to use the family games component on days when their anxious mood or stress were greater than usual ($OR_{anxious}$ = 0.78, 95% CI [0.60, 0.98]; $OR_{stress}$ = 0.84, 95% CI [0.69, 1.02]); this diverged from between-person findings. Other family functioning and mood indices were not related to daily engagement.
Discussion: Findings underscore the importance of providing timely, relevant content when parents perceive the need; however, at times of stress or anxiety, parents were less likely to engage. Although engagement goals vary across interventions, program providers should consider the potential impact of these barriers for sustained digital intervention engagement.
| Conflict of interest | None |
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