Patterns of participation in the Grow parenting program

Abstract

Purpose Employing brief, low-intensity, face-to-face parenting programs can result in improvements in parenting and child behavior; however, their usefulness is often limited by low participation rates. Online technologies are increasingly presented as a panacea for promoting program reach in a cost-effective way. The extant literature, however, provides limited guidance on issues around the implementation of online parenting programs. Grow is a universal, health-promoting parenting program that targets families with 5–10 year olds and was developed for face-to-face delivery and then adapted for a web-based format. The purpose of this paper is to present implementation results from feasibility proof of concept studies of Grow Face-to-Face and Grow Online and explores issues regarding mode of delivery and parent participation. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from participants using attendance records, end-of-module/session surveys and semi-structured, in-depth interviews, and were examined using descriptive statistics and inductive thematic analysis. Findings Findings suggest that, compared to the online implementation, recruitment was more difficult for the face-to-face implementation. Conversely, retention in the online program was poorer than in the face-to-face program. Participants from both programs self-reported high levels of engagement and satisfaction. Parents who completed Grow Online expressed a desire for more interpersonal interactions, which suggests a possible need for hybrid programs that combine online technologies with traditional face-to-face modes of delivery. Originality/value These findings challenge the idea that the internet can fully address barriers to parenting program participation by showing that while parents may sign up more readily for an online program, they may struggle to complete all modules. This is problematic as program dosage can influence parent and child outcomes.

Facilitators and barriers of children's participation in nutrition, physical activity, and obesity interventions: A systematic review

“…Seven were qualitative studies (which included interviews or focus groups with potential participants to inform a future clinical trial) 29–35 . Lastly, 16 studies applied mixed methods (which included the review of study records to evaluate recruitment and/or supplementary interviews, focus groups, surveys, or questionnaires about recruitment) 36–51 . Fifteen studies questioned parents and children about the facilitators and/or barriers to engaging in clinical trials, 29–33,41–49,52 and within these, only three studies assessed perceptions of both parents and children 47,48,52 .…”

“…Fifteen studies questioned parents and children about the facilitators and/or barriers to engaging in clinical trials, 29–33,41–49,52 and within these, only three studies assessed perceptions of both parents and children 47,48,52 . Also, 15 studies questioned research staff 25–28,34–40,44,46,50,51 . From all of these studies, two questioned children and parents and also researchers 44,46 .…”

Grow Online: feasibility and proof of concept study

“…This suggests program recruitment is feasible, and it signals a potential advantage that DD-PFIs may have over PFIs delivered F2F. That is, DD-PFIs may experience easier recruitment than F2F PFIs (Czymoniewicz-Klippel et al , 2019). This proposition certainly resonates with the hypothesis that DD-PFIs have the potential for greater reach than F2F PFIs.…”

“…Due to the change in mode of delivery, modifications were made to the number and length of sessions to promote parent retention and were also made to the content and delivery system of the prompts and the format of the reflection activities that start each session. However, no content was added or removed during the adaptation process to maximize the comparability of the program versions (see Czymoniewicz-Klippel et al , 2019).…”

The analysis of the parenting implications on the emotional closeness of parent-child improvement

“…Every parent is different in applying to parent and their behavior towards children. It depends on the attitude that they are learning in a nurturing and educating children, among others, the existence of initial experience with children, the knowledge of how to best treat the child either in democratic or authoritarian, permissive (Bradley et al, 2017;Ciciolla et al, 2017;Czymoniewicz-Klippel et al, 2019;Dicé et al, 2017). Most parents apply authoritarian parenting which authoritarian parenting harms children.…”