Partners in Parenting: Evaluating an online personalised parenting program

The intervention consists of a web-based parenting program ('Parenting Strategies: preventing depression and anxiety') which is part of a larger research translation program (Parenting Strategies; www.parentingstrategies.net). Parents will first complete an online Parent Survey (developed specifically for use in this study) that assesses their current parenting practices against the recommendations in the Guidelines 'How to Prevent Depression and Clinical Anxiety in Your Teenager: Strategies for Parents' (Parenting Strategies Program, 2013; henceforth the Guidelines). Based on their responses to this survey, parents in the intervention group will then (1) receive an individually-tailored feedback report that highlights areas where they are doing well (i.e., concordant with the Guidelines) and areas where they can improve (i.e., not concordant with the Guidelines), and (2) be given access to the web-based parenting intervention (up to 9 modules) to support them in making changes to identified areas of weakness in their parenting. Specific modules are recommended to parents based on their responses to the baseline Parent Survey. Feedback messages are brief, with practical strategies provided in dot point form, and are designed to motivate behaviour change. Parents in the intervention group will view their feedback report online immediately after submitting their online baseline assessment and being randomly allocated to the intervention group. They will also be emailed a copy of their feedback report, the Parenting Guidelines, and instructions on accessing the interactive web-based parenting program with their recommended modules. Upon logging in to their parenting program, parents will see their recommended modules as well as other available modules. They can further tailor their parenting program at this stage by deselecting recommended modules and/or selecting additional modules. They then confirm their selection and can commence their personalised program. The 9 modules comprising the intervention are derived from topics covered in the Parenting Guidelines. Modules include illustrations, audio clips, vignettes, interactive activities, goal-setting exercises, and an end-of-module quiz with immediate feedback to consolidate learning. The module topics include: parent-child relationship, parental involvement and autonomy granting, encouraging supportive relationships, establishing family rules, minimising conflict in the home, encouraging good health habits, problem solving, managing anxiety, and help seeking. Each module is designed to help parents make changes to their parenting so as to be more in concordance with the Guidelines. Each module takes about 15-25 minutes to complete. Parents are invited to complete their first module immediately after they have completed their baseline survey and received their feedback report. Thereafter they are encouraged to complete one module a week (in a set order) until they have completed their whole program. Their access to their parenting program will remain open indefinitely. All parent participants, regardless of group, will receive a weekly phone call from a researcher, starting 7 days after completing their baseline survey, and every week thereafter for at least 5 weeks The total number of weekly calls will match the number of modules in each parent's tailored parenting program; but if they have less than 5 modules, they will still receive 5 calls. Research staff will be trained to make these calls following a standard script (i.e. a standard list of questions and prompts), and will not provide individual advice or therapy. The aims of these calls are to address any study-related questions that arise, ascertain that parents progress through their allocated intervention each week till completion, and enhance retention.