Disseminating online parenting resources in the community during the COVID‐19 pandemic: Lessons learned

Abstract

Online parenting programs are an effective way to teach behavioral management skills to parents in the absence of in‐person resources. This community‐engaged study aimed to examine strategies for disseminating online parenting resources in schools. Online resources were disseminated to parents in a Northern California school district. Dissemination strategies were informed by conversations with school principals, teachers, and parents and considered agent, message, and format. A total of 685 parents and teachers clicked on the online resources: 151 parents and 114 teachers attended synchronous classes. The use of dissemination strategies had a compounding influence on the number of synchronous class attendees and clicks. Emails sent by the school district yielded the greatest number of clicks, which was influenced by message content and format. A community–academic partnership (CAP) led to the dissemination of evidence‐based online parenting resources to a large population and led to lessons learned that could inform future research involving CAPs.

The Asian Conference on Education 2022: Official Conference Proceedings

“…In response to the demand for easily accessible and practical parenting advice during the lockdown, governments and other organisations, such as the WHO, UNICEF, and World Childhood Foundation, have made reading materials, broadcasts, and videos available online (Lasecke et al, 2022;Sherr et al, 2022). According to the findings identified, it is feasible to conduct rapid distribution parenting materials on a broad scale within COVID-19 restrictions and beneficial for parents from a variety of backgrounds (Sherr et al, 2022).…”

“…The dissemination strategies refer to how information is delivered effectively and efficiently to parents and educators (Bernhardt & Felter, 2004). Due to the enormous amount of information available online, an increasing number of respondents revealed the difficulties of locating relevant resources, organising multiple resources, decoding and utilising specific online resources (Lasecke et al, 2022). Parental involvement with online resources could be greatly altered by the application of proper dissemination strategies (Bernhardt & Felter, 2004;Plantin & Daneback, 2009).…”

“…Immigrant parents valued resources offered in various languages (such as English, Chinese, and Spanish). Providing a variety of distribution forms (emails, newsletters, and live presentations, for example) and employing a pictorial visual design were also favourably associated with view counts (Lasecke et al, 2022). Schools' and parents' opinions should be considered to improve the efficacy of disseminating information.…”

Promoting youth mental health through stakeholder-generated innovation

“…In response to these calls to action, an abundance of ideas for promoting youth mental health have been proposed. Youth mental health advocates have emphasized the urgent need to screen for youth mental health problems to identify and address symptoms and other sequelae before they begin to interfere with functioning (Guo & Jhe, 2021;Last et al, 2021); to widely disseminate information about mental illness and available welfare and mental health resources to improve recognition and prevention of mental health problems (Kelly et al, 2007;Lasecke et al, 2022); to increase the availability and accessibility of mental health resources, particularly for under-resourced and marginalized communities (Atkins et al, 2017;Torres Sanchez et al, 2022); to recruit, train, and employ more mental health professionals (Barnett et al, 2018;Konrad et al, 2009); and to increase funding to turn these ideas for promoting youth mental health into a reality (Cooper & Aratani, 2009). A glaring issue, however, is that it is not possible to immediately and simultaneously invest, implement, and sustain all of these avenues for promoting youth mental health within the current mental healthcare infrastructure.…”

Pilot implementation of psychoeducational workshops on behavior management and stress management for parents and teachers

“…The second study aimed to evaluate the acceptability, appropriateness, feasibility, and comprehension of stress management and behavior management strategies covered in psychoeducational workshops for teachers. In the exploration phase, the research team met with school principals per their request to understand the mental health needs of their school (see Lasecke et al, 2022 for more details about this community academic partnership). In the preparation phase, the research team collaborated with stakeholders to develop workshops focused on teaching parents and teachers to recognize and respond to disruptive behavior problems and psychological stress, which were likely exacerbated by stressors related to COVID-19.…”