The Impact of Neuroscience Information on Parental Intent-to-Enroll in a Preventive Parenting Intervention

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic - Prevention and Interventions

Abstract

Prevention efforts that focus on parents are efficacious in preventing and reducing rates of child behavioral and emotional problems, and some work has shown that changes in child behavior is mediated by positive changes to parenting skills (Sandler et al., 2011, 2015). Preventive parenting programs have been shown to promote parenting competencies over follow-up periods up to 20 years (Sandler et al., 2011). However, the reach of parent skills training programs remains limited. A systematic review of parental engagement found that 25% percent of parents who met criteria for behavioral parent training interventions did not enroll in treatment, and an additional 26% dropped out before the end of treatment, leading to 51% of identified eligible parents not completing treatment (Chacko et al., 2016). Engagement rates in preventive interventions have been found to be similarly low, or even lower, than in standard intervention programs (Baker et al., 2011; Garvey et al., 2006). This lack of engagement has negative implications for children and families, for quality of research, and for disseminability of preventive parenting interventions (Axford et al., 2012; Morawska & Sanders, 2006). There is a need to test novel methods to promote initial engagement in preventive interventions (Finan et al., 2018; Gonzalez et al., 2018). Some evidence suggests that including neuroscience explanations can increase subjective credibility and favorability ratings of written information (Skolnick Weisberg et al., 2008, 2015). Despite the potential utility of neuroscience information in increasing acceptability of scientific information, no previous work has examined the impact of neuroscience information on the acceptability of intervention or prevention approaches. In the current study, I examine whether the inclusion of neuroscience information pertaining to child development and parent skills training will enhance parental intent-to-enroll more than information that does not include neuroscience. I directly compare two methods of advertising a preventive parent skills training program, using short video presentations that only differ in whether neuroscience information is included. This study focuses on the initial stage of engagement, connection, as defined in the engagement framework outlined by Piotrowska et al. (2017), maximizing data collected from both interested and uninterested parents. Aiming to expand the menu of theory-driven engagement strategies outlined in a recent systematic review (Finan et al., 2018), this study integrates two lines of work: 1) research on the impact of neuroscience information credibility, and 2) parent intervention engagement. Hypotheses: 1) parents who receive neuroscience information will report higher interest in and openness to enrolling in a parenting intervention from pre- to post-watching an informational video; 2) this group will display behavior that is consistent with higher intent-to-enroll, assessed via a higher number of mouse clicks and more time spent on pages of parenting resources; 3) at 1-month follow-up, this group will report having engaged with more of the resources provided after the baseline visit. Differences between groups will be tested using a combination of one-way and repeated-measures ANOVAs. Baseline data (N = 170) have been fully collected and 1-month follow-up data collection is ongoing.

Authors

• Isaac Ali Mirzadegan, Florida State Univeristy
  Presenting Author

• Alexandria Meyer
  Non-Presenting Author