Parenting Matters: Helping Parents With Young Children

April 11, 2018 updated by: University of Western Ontario, Canada
Sleep and discipline problems are the most common problems for parents of young children (ages 2 to 5 years old) and are the two concerns with the strongest relations to future child behavior problems. The Parenting Matters program combines treatment booklets and telephone support to help parents deal with sleep or discipline problems. Parents with concerns and who are interested in the study are identified during a visit to their family physician. We, the investigators at the University of Western Ontario, expect that parents receiving treatment booklets, along with usual care by their family physician, will have greater reductions in their child's sleep or discipline problems, improved parenting practices, and greater reductions in child behaviour problems after receiving the Parenting Matters intervention, compared to parents receiving usual medical care.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

About 1 in 5 young children (ages 2 to 5 years) has a significant psychosocial problem, but over 80% do not receive treatment. Without treatment, up to half of these children will have problems into childhood and adolescence. New methods of treating and preventing children's psychosocial problems are needed.

Sleep and discipline problems (or child non-compliance) are the most common problems for parents of young children, and are the two concerns with the strongest relations to future child behavior problems. Further, parenting practices have consistently been linked to the development of psychosocial problems. The Parenting Matters program combines treatment booklets and telephone support to help parents with sleep or discipline problems among young children.

Objectives:

  • Test the efficacy of the Parenting Matters program interventions for sleeping and bedtime behaviors (Trial 1), and discipline (Trial 2) in reducing problem-specific outcomes.
  • Test the effects of the Parenting Matters program interventions for parents who are concerned about both their children's sleep and discipline (Trial 3) in reducing problem-specific outcomes related to sleep (Group 1) and discipline problems (Group 2) will be tested.
  • Test the efficacy of the Parenting Matters program in improving parenting practices.
  • Test the efficacy of the Parenting Matters program in reducing child behaviour problems in general.
  • Examine predictors of treatment success.

Method:

All parents of 2 to 5 year-olds seen in a family practice for a routine appointment are asked to complete a psychosocial concerns checklist. Parents who have concerns regarding their child's sleep (Trial 1), how to discipline their child (Trial 2), or concerns about both their child's sleep and discipline (Trial 3), and meet the other study criteria, are invited to take part in the study. Mailed baseline assessment packages assess children's behavior, parenting practices and potential predictors of treatment success.

Parents are randomized to usual care, or the Parenting Matters program along with usual care. The Parenting Matters program includes treatment booklets addressing either sleep or discipline problems, and telephone coach support (3 calls over 6 weeks).

Primary outcomes are parents' ratings of their children's sleep or discipline problems measured at post-treatment (7 weeks after baseline). Parents repeat assessment packages at 3- and 6-month follow-ups.

Goals & Relevance:

This research addresses the need for new ways of providing early interventions for young children that:

  • reach the largest number of individuals in need;
  • are cost effective; and
  • time efficient.

By addressing the most common issues facing parents of young children, it engages parents in areas of direct relevance to them. The program focuses on parenting practices thereby building family strengths that may have a lasting impact on child development. Collaboration with family physicians builds on the ongoing positive relationships between parents and family physicians and provides a mechanism to reach a significant proportion of young children.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

548

Phase

  • Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • London, Ontario, Canada, N6C 5A2
        • University of Western Ontario

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

16 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Parent (primary caregiver) of a 2-5 year old child
  • Attending a medical appointment at a family medical practice
  • Phone in home
  • Parent concerned about child's sleep and/or discipline
  • Parent interested in participating in a treatment study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Parent non-English speaking
  • Child with significant physical or developmental disability
  • Parent's only sleep concern is in regards to a physiological sleep disorder (e.g. sleep apnea, snoring) or bedwetting
  • No phone

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Usual Care
Behavioral: Usual care by a family physician
Parents in the usual care condition were told to continue with care from their family physician and/or any other treatment recommended by the physician.
Experimental: Treatment booklet and telephone coaching
Behavioral: Self-help treatment booklet and telephone support
The Parenting Matters treatment program consisted of a self-help treatment booklet and two telephone coaching calls from a paraprofessional telephone coach at Weeks 2 and 5 of the program. Two booklets were used in the three trials; one addressed sleep issues and the second discipline problems.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Sleep and bedtime problems trial (Trial 1): parent report on the Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire
Time Frame: 7 weeks post randomization
7 weeks post randomization
Discipline problems trial (Trial 2): parent rated total problem score on the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory
Time Frame: 7 weeks post randomization
7 weeks post randomization
Sleep and discipline problems trial (Trial 3): parent report on the Children's Sleep Habit Questionnaire (Group 1-sleep treatment) and parent rated total problem score on the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (Group 2-discipline treatment)
Time Frame: 7 weeks post randomization
7 weeks post randomization

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Parenting practices-total score on the Parenting Scale
Time Frame: 7 weeks post randomization; 3- & 6-month follow-up; 12-month follow-up treatment group only
7 weeks post randomization; 3- & 6-month follow-up; 12-month follow-up treatment group only
General child behavior problems-total problem score on the Child Behavior Checklist
Time Frame: 7 weeks post randomization; 3- & 6-month follow-up; 12-month follow-up treatment group only
7 weeks post randomization; 3- & 6-month follow-up; 12-month follow-up treatment group only
Daily recall ratings of sleep and discipline problems (3 reports in total)
Time Frame: 4 & 6 weeks post randomization; 3- & 6-month follow-up; 12-month follow-up treatment group only
4 & 6 weeks post randomization; 3- & 6-month follow-up; 12-month follow-up treatment group only
Parent report on the Richman sleep questionnaires (only for Trial 1-sleep and bedtime problems and for Trial 3 participants if in sleep treatment condition)
Time Frame: 7 weeks post randomization; 3- & 6-month follow-up; 12-month follow-up treatment group only
7 weeks post randomization; 3- & 6-month follow-up; 12-month follow-up treatment group only

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Western Ontario, Canada

Collaborators

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Graham J Reid, PhD, Western University, Canada

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

July 1, 2005

Primary Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

March 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 18, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 18, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

August 22, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 13, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 11, 2018

Last Verified

August 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 67816; 280205-014
  • ISRCTN81511074

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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