Designing and evaluating an online parenting intervention based on ‘The Little Parent Handbook’ Dawn Owen PhD Student Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention Supervisors: Professor Judy Hutchings & Dr Nia Griffith

Introduction Trials conducted by Judy Hutchings and colleagues during the 1990s (Hutchings et al., 2002; Lane & Hutchings 2002; Hutchings, Lane & Kelly 2004) with parents and with health visitors demonstrated good outcomes from parents being taught effective behavioural strategies that reduced behaviour problems and increased positive parent-child relationships. As part of these trials help sheets were provided to participants who were either parents with high challenge conduct disordered children receiving a CAMHS based intervention or parents of challenging preschool children being supported by health visitors. These help sheets were subsequently published as ‘The Little Parent Handbook’, (Hutchings, 2013)

‘The Little Parent Handbook’ A handbook for parents of children aged 3-8 years covering core behavioural principles Aims to support parents in strengthening their relationship with their child through the encouragement of positive child behaviours Focuses on positive parenting such as spending more time together and praising and rewarding positive behaviour

Online Parenting Intervention Transferring the content of the book to the web 10-week online programme with 10 chapters in total Parents required to complete one chapter each week Top tips include encouraging parents to practice the skills outlined in the programme at home with their child There is a 5 day gap between each chapter to enable time to practice individual behavioural principles Video examples of positive parenting Online multiple-choice quizes

Let’s take a look … https://www.lifeguideonline.org/ Username: Dawn12 Password: Conference https://www.lifeguideonline.org/

Software developed at the University of Southampton by a Computer Scientist and Health Psychologist Software allows researchers to create online behaviour change interventions Free software for students (!) Intervention package includes advantageous features such as uploading audio and video files, providing online feedback, scoring multiple choice quizzes and tracking individual usage

Pilot study – October – December 2015 Recruited 20 participants through word of mouth and recruitment posters Participants consented to undertake the 10-week online programme and provide feedback Not all participants had children, as the main purpose of this study was to test the interactive features of the programme and gain user feedback

Pilot study – October – December 2015 Poor retention! 90% of participants completed chapter 1 15% of participants completed chapter 10

What did the feedback tell us? Pilot study – October – December 2015 What did the feedback tell us? Majority of participants forgot and so failed to complete the programme due to the 5 day gap between each chapter Participants would have liked the option to look back over previously completed chapters if they logged in early/before the next session was available Participants would have liked more example videos of positive parenting

What did the feedback tell us? Pilot study – October – December 2015 What did the feedback tell us? 92% strongly agreed that they found the programme easy to navigate 77% agreed or strongly agreed that all of the features of the programme were working 85% agreed or strongly agreed that the videos of positive parenting were useful 92% agreed or strongly agreed that they would recommend the programme to parents of children aged 3-8 years

“Very useful and easy to follow programme” Pilot study – October – December 2015 “Overall I thought the content of the programme would be extremely useful to parents of young children” “I really enjoyed the programme and gained some valuable tips on parenting! I have put these into practice with my 8 year old daughter and have had great results so far” “A reminder to all parents how important we are as role models to our children” “Very useful and easy to follow programme”

Randomised Controlled Trial 2016 Modifications are currently being made based on the feedback from the pilot study, these include: Text message prompt to target retention Allowing parents to log in early and look over previously completed chapters More video examples of positive parenting Current state of trial: Approval has been granted by NHS ethics committee and School of Psychology. Planning to start recruiting at the end of this month …

Randomised Controlled Trial 2016 Recruitment methods: Word of mouth Recruitment poster to Nurseries and Primary Schools in Gwynedd, Anglesey & Conwy Health visitors and school nurses approaching parents of children aged 3-8 years on their caseloads Inclusion criteria: Parent of a child aged 3-8 years Access to the internet via a PC and/or laptop Good understanding of English

Procedure Recruit 60 parents of children aged 3-8 years Randomise parents on a 2:1 ratio to either intervention or 3-month wait-list control group Baseline visit 3 month follow-up visit 6 month follow-up visit for intervention group only Measures include self-report questionnaires on child behaviour, parental sense of competence, general health and parenting style, in addition to a behavioural observation of parent-child interaction

Thank you very much for listening Any questions. dawn. a. owen@bangor Thank you very much for listening Any questions? dawn.a.owen@bangor.ac.uk