Psychology Mobile Apps for Parents in a Pandemic

The purpose of this study is to determine whether parents of young children (aged 10 and under) think it is feasible (in other words, doable) and acceptable (in other words, satisfactory) to use a mobile app designed to provide personalized education and enrichment for 10 minutes/day for 14 days. The investigators hope to learn if it is reasonable to ask parents to use one of three different apps and if parents are satisfied with their participation in the study. If so, the investigators can continue to study the effect of these apps on parents' stress in future research.

The investigators also plan to evaluate the effect of these app-based interventions in lowering levels of stress in parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. By conducting this study, the investigators hope to learn if there are specific app-based interventions that will lead to a reduction in stress in parents, improved parental life satisfaction, and improved parent-child interactions. If the results of this study suggest these apps may be promising at reducing stress among parents, the investigators will continue doing research on these app-based interventions.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Stress, Psychological
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Mindfulness; Behavioral: Gratitude; Behavioral: Food Journal

Detailed Description

Parents will be invited to participate in a research study to see what parents of young children (aged 10 and under) think of using one of three different mobile app-based interventions to improve parental life satisfaction. The study will be conducted by Dr. Chelsea Ratcliff and Dr. Hillary Langley, Assistant Professors of Psychology at Sam Houston State University. In addition to learning about parents' satisfaction with these app-based interventions, the investigators also plan to compare the effect of these app-based interventions on levels of parental stress, and on quality of parent-child interactions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this research is to learn if it is reasonable to ask parents to use one of three different apps and if parents are satisfied with their participation in the study. If so, the investigators can continue to study the effect of these apps. The investigators also plan to evaluate the effect of these app-based interventions in lowering levels of stress in parents. By conducting this study, the investigators hope to learn if there are specific app-based interventions that will lead to a reduction in stress in parents, improved parental life satisfaction, and improved parent-child interactions.

In order to be eligible to participate, participants must be 18 years old or older, and a parent or primary caregiver of a child/children aged 10 years or young. Participants will first consent to participate by signing their name electronically using the mouse at the end of this consent form and providing their name and email address so the investigators can maintain contact. After reading this consent form and agreeing to it, participants will be directed to complete the first survey, which will take about 30 minutes to complete. They will be asked to complete two short questionnaires to determine their eligibility for the study. Participants will receive a $5 gift card for completing the first questionnaire.

After completing the pre-intervention survey, participants will be randomly assigned to use one of three psychology mobile apps. The study coordinator will email them to set up a 15-minute Zoom meeting in order to provide more information about the intervention and to help download the app that they were assigned. After the 14-day period, the study coordinator will email participants a link to a 20-minute follow-up survey, and they will receive a $5 gift card for completing this survey. One month later, the study coordinator will email participants a link to the final follow-up survey, and you will receive a $10 gift card for completing this survey. Thus, participants can earn up to $20 in Amazon gift cards for participating in this study ($5 for the pre-intervention survey, $5 for the immediate post-intervention survey, and $10 for the one-month post-intervention survey).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 224
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Huntsville, Texas, United States, 77341
      • Sam Houston State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Only individuals aged 18 and older will be allowed to participate in the current research (assessed by participant self-report).
2. Individuals must identify oneself as a parent or primary caregiver of a child/children aged 10 or under (assessed by participant self-report).
3. Participants who score 30 or higher in the Parent Stress Scale (PSS) measure.
4. Participants who reside in the U.S. and can understand and answer surveys in English.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Individuals under 18
2. Non-English-speaking individuals
3. Individuals who do not consent to the survey.
4. Individuals who do not identify oneself as a parent or primary caregiver of a child/children under the age of 10 (assessed by participant self-report).
5. Individuals who score 30 or lower in the PSS measure.
6. Individuals who do not reside in the U.S.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Factorial Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Mindfulness; Participants will be asked to use the app Mindfulness Coach 10 minutes for 14 days.	Behavioral: Mindfulness; Participants will be asked to use the app Mindfulness Coach daily for 10 minutes. Participants will follow app instructions for brief guided meditation sessions for 14 days.
Experimental: Gratitude; Participants will be asked to use the app Grateful 10 minutes for 14 days.	Behavioral: Gratitude; Participants will be asked to use the app Grateful daily for 10 minutes. Participants will follow app instructions and will be answering to prompts related to gratitude provided by the app daily, for 10 minutes for 14 days.
Active Comparator: Control; Participants will be asked to use the app Day One daily for 10 minutes. Participants will be writing a daily journal entry describing what they ate during the previous day for 14 days.	Behavioral: Food Journal; Participants will be asked to use the app Day One daily for 10 minutes. Participants will be writing a daily journal entry describing what they ate during the previous day for 14 days.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Parental Stress Scale Total Score	Parental stress will be measured with The Parental Stress Scale, an 18-item self report scale; scores range from 18-90.	T1 (before intervention); T2 (immediately after intervention); T3 (1-month after intervention)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Five Facet Questionnaire: Short Form Total Score	Trait mindfulness will be measured with the Five Facet Questionnaire: Short Form, a 15-item self-report scale; scores range from 15-75.	T1 (before intervention); T2 (immediately after intervention); T3 (1-month after intervention)
Gratitude Questionnaire-6 Total Score	Trait gratitude will be measured with the Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ-6), a 6-item self-report measure that ranges from 6-42.	T1 (before intervention); T2 (immediately after intervention); T3 (1-month after intervention)
Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test-Revised Short Form Total Score	Trait gratitude will be measured with Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test-Revised Short Form (GRAT-R-SF), a 16-item self-report measure with scores ranging from 16-144.	T1 (before intervention); T2 (immediately after intervention); T3 (1-month after intervention)
Dyadic Adjustment Scale Total Score	Perceptions of one's relationship with an intimate partner will be measured via the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS-7), a 7-item self-report measure with scores ranging from 0-36.	T1 (before intervention); T2 (immediately after intervention); T3 (1-month after intervention)
Positive & Negative Affect Scores	Positive and negative affect will be measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), a 20-item self-report measure with PA scores ranging from 0-50 and NA scores ranging from 0-50.	T1 (before intervention); T2 (immediately after intervention); T3 (1-month after intervention)
Child-Parent Relationship Scale Closeness & Conflict Scores	Parents' views of their relationship with their child will be measured with the Child-Parent Relationship Scale, a 15-item self-report measure, with 7 items assessing closeness (range 7-35) and 8 items assessing conflict (range 8-40).	T1 (before intervention); T2 (immediately after intervention); T3 (1-month after intervention)
Perceived Stress Scale Total Score	Perceived stress will be measuring using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), a 10-item self-report measure with scores ranging from 0-40.	T1 (before intervention); T2 (immediately after intervention); T3 (1-month after intervention)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Sam Houston State University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 8, 2021
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 30, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): June 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 19, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 19, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): July 28, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 27, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 24, 2022
• Last Verified: October 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Mindfulness; Health Psychology; Gratitude; Parental stress; Mental health apps
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Stress, Psychological
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB-2020-230

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: At this time, there is no plan to share individual participant data with other researchers.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No