A Review of Technology-Based Youth and Family-Focused Interventions

Abstract

In the past 10 years, mental and behavioral health has seen a proliferation of technology-based interventions in the form of online and other computer-delivered programs. This paper focuses on technology-based treatment and preventive interventions aimed at benefitting children and adolescents via either involving the parents and families, or only the youth. The review considered only technology-based interventions that had at least one published study with a randomized controlled trial design. Questions being addressed included: (1) What are the technology-based interventions in the mental/behavioral health area that have been systematically evaluated in published studies? (2) What are the common and unique characteristics of these interventions and their application with respect to sample characteristics, target problems, and technology characteristics (platforms, structures, elements, and communication formats)? and (3) Which intervention approaches and strategies have accrued the greatest evidence? The review identified 30 technology-based psychosocial interventions for children and families, 19 of which were parent or family-focused (32 studies) and 11 of which were youth-focused (in 13 studies). For the parent/family-focused interventions, greatest promise was found in those that addressed either youth behavioral problems or depressive/anxious symptoms, as well as more general bolstering of parenting efficacy. The youth-focused interventions showed some promise in reducing depressive/ anxious symptoms. Advantages and disadvantages of the technology-based approaches were considered, and areas for future research and development were discussed.

Supporting health-related parenting: A scoping review of programs assisted by the Internet and related technologies

“…These programs are in different stages of implementation and validation, which was not assessed in this review. Previous metaanalysis or systematic reviews (Cushing & Steele, 2010;Hall & Bierman, 2015;MacDonell & Prinz, 2016) have already contributed to evaluate the effectiveness of technology-based programs targeting specific conditions, but more research is necessary. An optimistic perspective arises from the meta-analysis carried out by Wantland, Portillo, Holzemer, Slaughter, & McGhee (2004), which found that the use of web-based interventions for adults with chronic conditions showed larger effect sizes than the face-to-face programs in terms of the acquisition of knowledge and behaviour change.…”

“…Mixed findings about the acceptability, parent engagement, and impact of these programs have been reported. Another review about family-focused mental health interventions found good evidence for the effectiveness of parent training using evidencebased parenting strategies through technologybased interventions (MacDonell & Prinz, 2016).…”

“…eHealth and telemedicine interventions have been proposed as a solution to overcome major barriers in health care delivery (Field & Grigsby, 2002), such as geographic distance and accessibility, high costs, shortage of specialized professionals, and the stigma associated with mental illness (MacDonell & Prinz, 2016). This rising tendency results from the belief that technology can contribute to improve the quality of intervention delivery and increase participants' engagement (Jones, 2014).…”

Using telehealth technologies to engage and support parents of children with disabilities: An evaluation of a novel telehealth parenting programme

“…Driving the growth in telehealth interventions is the dual promise of increasing population 'reach' (i.e., overcoming many of the common barriers to in-person access) while decreasing delivery costs (Baker & Sanders, 2016;Hall & Bierman, 2015;Jones et al, 2013;Macdonell & Prinz, 2016). Despite the acknowledged potential of these emerging telehealth technologies, and the proliferation of teleheath interventions more broadly, there remain few empirically-validated parenting programmes currently available in an online or telehealth delivery modality (Baker & Sanders, 2016).…”

“…With the success of any parenting programme depending on both the willingness of parents to engage, as well as the feasibility of such engagement, it is vital that consumer preference be used to inform online parenting intervention design Macdonell & Prinz, 2016).…”