Motivational Interviewing to Increase Parent Engagement in Preventive Parenting Programming

A Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Use of Motivational Interviewing to Increase Engagement by Low-income Parents in Preventive Parenting-skills Programming

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).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Parent-Child Relations; Behavior Problems
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing; Behavioral: Anticipatory Guidance on Child Development

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 112
• Phase: Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Michigan
    • Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, 48109-5406
      • University of Michigan

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 2 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT, CHILD)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: DOUBLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Motiv. Interviewing; 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.	Behavioral: Motivational Interviewing; In the 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.
Active Comparator: Anticipatory Guidance; 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.	Behavioral: Anticipatory Guidance on Child Development; 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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Participant intention to attend IYS sessions	1 week

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Attendance at initial IYS session	1 month
Number of IYS sessions attended	9 months
Satisfaction with the IYS program, as measured by a 46-item IYS questionnaire	9 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Michigan
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Julie C Lumeng, University of Michigan

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2013
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): June 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 28, 2013
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 28, 2013
• First Posted (Estimate): October 7, 2013

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): December 2, 2015
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 1, 2015
• Last Verified: December 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Problem Behavior
• Other Study ID Numbers: SDBP_Research_Grant_2013