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Poster #55 - Play With Me: Effects of a Shared Activities Intervention on Positive Parenting

Thu, March 23, 3:15 to 4:00pm, Salt Palace Convention Center, Floor: 1, Hall A-B

Abstract

Decades of research has demonstrated positive parenting is associated with psychosocial benefits for young children, including reduced behavior problems and increased social-emotional skills. Positive parenting may also promote child health, such as healthy eating and weight outcomes. Traditionally, positive parenting programs are implemented in a didactic group format and recommend practice of skills at home, but few provide materials and guidance for structured parent-child activities to promote practice. A pilot randomized controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the impacts of a novel intervention designed to promote evidence-based positive parenting principles through brief, shared activities at home. Families of 4-to-5-year-old children were recruited, with plans to examine intervention effects on positive parenting and children’s eating-related and socioemotional outcomes. The present analysis examines intervention impacts on observed and reported parenting at post-test.

Thirty-two families were randomly assigned to a waitlist control or intervention group, and 31 families completed post-test assessments in the laboratory (53% female children; 81% White). The intervention was a 4-week curriculum completed at home. Parents received 12 activity kits with materials for structured parent-child activities (reading activities, crafts, or active games) and were instructed to select one activity kit to complete each week for 15 minutes, 4 days per week. Each week, parents watched a brief video on a parenting skill from the existing TripleP online program and received suggestions for using the weekly parenting skill during activities. At post-test, the parent and child completed a video-recorded free-play activity which was coded using the Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales. A composite for sensitive/responsive parenting was created (α = .87; Eiden et al., 2016). Parents self-reported their nurturance and structure in parenting, as well as parenting self-efficacy and satisfaction. Given the small sample size, we focus on interpreting medium-to-large effect size estimates (d ≥ 0.50) and confidence intervals (CI) from independent samples t-tests of study group differences.

The intervention group had higher observed sensitive/responsive parenting scores than controls (d = 0.69). To explore this effect, group differences for the individual subscales of the composite were examined. Intervention parents demonstrated more positive mood, more warmth/support, better relationship quality, and greater use of positive reinforcement compared to controls (ds ≥ 0.75). Intervention parents also displayed greater encouragement of independence than controls (d = 0.69). There were no substantial group differences in other observed parenting subscales in parent-reported nurturance or structure. The control group had higher mean efficacy (d = 0.69) and satisfaction (d = 0.53) scores than the intervention group. For reported effect sizes <0.70, CIs included 0, while this was not the case for the larger effects (see Table 1).

Results suggest brief, at-home intervention using structured parent-child activities is a promising approach to increasing positive parenting. The observed parenting data highlight impacts on aspects of parenting emphasized in the intervention. More research is needed to understand group differences in reported efficacy and satisfaction. Longer-term research in a larger sample should examine whether short-term parenting effects are sustained and if the intervention has lasting effects on child behavior and health.

Authors