Motivational Interviewing to Increase Parent Engagement in Preventive Parenting Programming

University of Michigan

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 2

Conditions: Behavior Problems; Parent-Child Relations

Treatments: Behavioral: Anticipatory Guidance on Child Development; Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01955551

SDBP_Research_Grant_2013

Details and patient eligibility

About

Evidence-based programs aimed at enhancing parenting skills are effective, and pediatricians identify many parents who could benefit from such programs. Low-income children have high rates of behavior problems and their family system and environmental exposures often lead to cumulative and daunting levels of risk for poor functional outcomes; their parents are highly likely to benefit from parenting supports. However, low-income families are the most likely to drop out of parenting interventions, meaning the families and children with the greatest need receive the least support. Fewer than 25% of low-income families recruited to parenting programs will participate in even one session, and only about half of these parents will participate in more than half of the sessions offered. The aims of this trial are:

Aim 1: To test the hypothesis that the provision of motivational interviewing (MI), as compared to an attention control (AC) condition, will increase the engagement of low-income parents of preschoolers in an evidence-based parenting skills group (the Incredible Years Series (IYS)). For this study, the outcome of engagement is operationally defined as intention to attend IYS sessions, attendance, and satisfaction with the IYS program.

Aim 2: To test the hypothesis that the effect of MI on engagement in IYS will be impacted by the following moderators: parenting self-efficacy, child behavior problems, and maternal depression.

The investigators hypothesize that the effect of MI on engagement will be greater among parents with lower parenting self-efficacy and parents of children with more behavior problems, but less among parents with more maternal depressive symptoms.

The investigators will use a stratified, randomized controlled trial (RCT) design to evaluate the impact of MI on parent engagement in a well-validated preventive parenting skills intervention, the Incredible Years Series (IYS).

Enrollment: 112 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 2+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• all children enrolled in the Head Start agencies involved in this study, who were randomized to the study arm involving the Incredible Years Series

Exclusion criteria

• child is a foster child
• parent or child cannot communicate in English

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Double Blind

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112 participants in 2 patient groups

Motiv. Interviewing

Experimental group

Description:

In the MI (motivational interviewing) study arm, participants will receive MI phone calls designed to evoke change talk and to prompt the participant to identify goals in regards to child behavior or parenting. The caller will engage in problem solving with the participants.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing

Anticipatory Guidance

Active Comparator group

Description:

In the Anticipatory Guidance on Child Development study arm, the participants will receive two phone calls with no MI content. The content of these phone calls is derived from an alignment of the Teaching Strategies GOLD® standards with the Head Start Development and Early Learning Framework. , This content is entirely scripted and pre-specified.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Anticipatory Guidance on Child Development