Mobile Behavioral Parent Training for Childhood ADHD: Pilot Trial

Personalizing Behavioral Parent Training: Improving Reach and Outcomes for Families of Children With ADHD

The goal of the study is to develop and pilot a personalized behavioral parent training intervention for caregivers of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The behavioral intervention will teach positive parenting through videos and quizzes that caregivers can access through a smartphone application. The program also gives parents and caregivers in-the-moment feedback their use of parenting strategies.

The main questions to answer are:

Is parenting feedback provided by a smartphone application acceptable to caregivers? Is the phone application usable and acceptable to parents and caregivers of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?

In the pilot trial, participants (parents/caregivers) will be randomly assigned to either (1) use the positive parenting intervention phone application (mobile Behavioral Parent Training: mBPT) or (2) use mBPT and receive brief, personalized phone prompts throughout their participation that target parenting behavior and intervention engagement.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Mobile Behavioral Parent Training (mBPT); Behavioral: Just-in-time intervention: Parenting Strategies

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 56
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New York
    • Buffalo, New York, United States, 14226
      • Center for Children and Families of Western New York

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• currently meets Diagnostic Statistical Manual 5 diagnostic criteria for ADHD
• ages 7 -12
• has at least one parent or primary caregiver who is willing to participate and is able to access the intervention at home via smartphone.

Exclusion Criteria:

• N/A

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: mBPT only	Behavioral: Mobile Behavioral Parent Training (mBPT); The mobile phone application includes behavioral parent training content (for example, praise, effective commands, reward systems) delivered in videos, examples, and quizzes that parents/caregivers access.
Experimental: mBPT and just-in-time adaptive intervention	Behavioral: Mobile Behavioral Parent Training (mBPT); The mobile phone application includes behavioral parent training content (for example, praise, effective commands, reward systems) delivered in videos, examples, and quizzes that parents/caregivers access.; Behavioral: Just-in-time intervention: Parenting Strategies; Parents will receive prompts via phone that provide parenting suggestions and parenting feedback when they are interacting with their child.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Intervention Engagement	Number of mobile BPT sessions completed divided by the total number of sessions available.	Through study completion, average of 10 weeks
Receipt of Prompts	Percent of prompts sent that were opened within 20 minutes of being sent	Through study completion, average of 10 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Passive Audio Data- Positive Parenting	Parenting Behavior- Dyadic Parent Child Interaction Coding System, number of labeled praises and unlabeled praises per hour during last week of study.	During the last 1 week of study completion

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Florida International University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 1, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): August 14, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): August 14, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 12, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 19, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): July 21, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): August 29, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 28, 2025
• Last Verified: August 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Neurodevelopmental Disorders; Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity
• Other Study ID Numbers: 1R34MH128513 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

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