Online parent programs for children’s behavioral problems: a meta-analytic review

Abstract

A recent increase in the development of online parent programs calls for the need to understand how effective these strategies are for improving children's mental health. We meta-analyzed the effects of online parent programs on children's behavioral problems. Moreover, we explored the combinations of program components to yield stronger program effects. Medline, Psy-cINFO, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library were searched. We included peer-reviewed randomized studies evaluating the effect of an online parent program. Effect sizes (Hedges' g) were calculated from post intervention means and standard deviations. We used Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to identify pathways to effectiveness and individual content and delivery components that seem sufficient or necessary for yielding high effectiveness. Of 2941 articles, 12 articles with a total of 2025 participants met the inclusion criteria. Online parent programs have significant effects on children's behavioral problems (g = − 0.32; 95% CI, − 0.47 to − 0.17), emotional problems (g = − 0.22; 95% CI, − 0.31 to − 0.13), and parental mental health problems (g = − 0.30; 95% CI, − 0.42 to − 0.17). In the QCA, sending parents reminders to work on the program was the only one sufficient component. In conclusion, online support programs reduce children's behavioral and emotional problems and improve parental mental health. Sending parents reminders to work on the program seems to contribute to high effectiveness. Review Registration This study was registered with PROSPERO, number CRD42017080051.

Research Strategies to Discern Active Psychological Therapy Components: A Scoping Review

“…In this strategy, the typically adopted single-component approach (e.g., Leijten et al, 2018Leijten et al, , 2019) can be extended to identify combinations of therapy components that yield the strongest effects, using, for example, network meta-analysis (Caldwell et al, 2005;Pompoli et al, 2018), qualitative comparative analysis (Rihoux & Ragin, 2009;Thongseiratch et al, 2020), or meta-analytic classification and regression trees (meta-CART; Breiman et al, 1984). Each of these strategies tests how different combinations of therapy components associate with therapy effects by identifying either clusters of components that collectively define a coherent therapy approach (network meta-analysis) or combinations of therapy components that are present in more effective therapies specifically (qualitative comparative analysis) or testing interactions between components (meta-CART).…”

Transdiagnostic feasibility trial of internet-based parenting intervention to reduce child behavioural difficulties associated with congenital and neonatal neurodevelopmental risk: introducing I-InTERACT-North

“…Psychotherapeutic parenting interventions, including PCIT, are effective when translated to telepsychotherapy modalities (e.g., Comer et al, 2017;Wade et al, 2017). The provision of online and virtual psychotherapy has been met with patient and family satisfaction (Jenkins-Guarnieri et al, 2015) and demonstrate efficacy in improving child behaviour and emotional difficulties as well as parental mental health (Thongseiratch et al, 2020). In fact, online service delivery may offer advantages over in-person sessions, such as increased generalization of parents' new skills to their natural environment, as well as clinician access to more holistic and accurate information about family climate, challenges, and distractions, which may lead to more effective trouble-shooting and skill application (Antonini et al, 2012).…”

Policies Are Needed to Increase the Reach and Impact of Evidence-Based Parenting Supports: A Call for a Population-Based Approach to Supporting Parents, Children, and Families

“…• There is extensive evidence supported by meta-analyses and systematic reviews for EBPSs resulting in improvements in behaviour problems for children aged less than 12-years-old (Barlow et al, 2016;Barlow & Coren, 2018;Furlong et al, 2012;Sanders et al, 2014;Solomon et al, 2017;Spencer et al, 2020) across a variety of settings and formats (Spencer et al, 2020;Thongseiratch et al, 2020).…”

“…• Evidence shows that EBPSs can reduce internalising problems (Thongseiratch et al, 2020;Yap et al, 2016).…”