Effect of digital parenting interventions on parent confidence and child behaviour in New Zealand.

Participants will randomised to one of the below interventions or a waitlist control during the study period. At the conclusion of the study all participants will be given free access to both interventions. The study period will be one week (7 days). Participants will be given access to the interventions and asked to use them as much as they can in during the study week although no minimum/maximum use will be stipulated. FIRST INTERVENTION SuperKids SUPERKIDS is a web-based application (app) accessed through a secure website with participant created details that link them to the research platform. It consists of 5 parenting skills that are utilised to improve the parent child relationship. In every session a new parenting skill will be available for the parents in short animated videos, before being guided to practice the new skill in a 5 minute power playtime during which they monitor their use of the learnt skill for the day. They parents will be expected to spend 5 minutes every day practicing the new skill in the powerplay and will be allowed to complete it at any pace from all in one sitting, through to spreading out the 5 skills across the one week intervention period. SAY skills – talking about what the child is playing with in the powerplay, so the child is the centre of your attention for that 5 minutes. It is during this 5 minutes that the parent helps the child to learn about concepts such as colour, numbers and other school ready skills through commenting on their play rather than asking them to questions. U follow skills – teaches play therapy skills, so that the parent simply follows the child’s lead in the play. Following the child’s lead means the child is in control of the play and is able to stay focussed and settled. Praise skills – exactly what you like and why you like it. Enjoy skills – parent learns to show their child that they are enjoying playing with them through verbal, physical and facial expressions. Redirect skills – these are the skills to redirect a child away from potentially annoying situations and return their attention back to positive play time activities. SECOND INTERVENTION Play Kindly Play Kindly is is a native application (app on iOS & Android) accessed through an installed app on their device with participant created details that link them to the research platform. It is a behavioural parenting interventions that has been designed for Pacific families. It is utilises short animations to demonstrate difficulties and a game format to teach responses. Play Kindly consists of seven scenarios demonstrating common behavioural problems and asks parents the appropriate way to respond to these situations. Feedback is given about their answers. Each scenario is approximately 30 seconds long and ends where the parent has to make a decision about how to intervene. Scenario 1: A boy is playing with a tablet. His little sister comes along and asks for the tablet. The brother refuses to give her the tablet and the she keeps pestering him for it. The boy calls out to the mother for help. Scenario 2: A mother tries to get her daughter to eat dinner. The daughter refuses to eats and responds disrespectfully to her mother. Scenario 3: A brother and sister are playing with their toy cars. The brother asks the sister for her car. When she refuses, tries to snatch the toy from her. He ends up hitting her and the girl calls for her mother Scenario 4: A mother asks her son to help his little sister put on her jumper. The little sister refuses. She kicks the brother as he struggles to dress her. Scenario 5: A father is at supermarket when his daughter asks him if he can buy her a toy. After the father refuses, the daughter throws a tantrum and lays on the floor. Scenario 6: Child-led play. Where the child has at least 5 minutes of leading an activity. Scenario 7: Positive praise. Reinforcing things parents would like to see more of. Analytics will be gathered through both the interventions on the access and use of each of the aspects and will be linked back to their profile on the research platform, allowing assessment of adherence and engagement.