Testing the Impact of the Parenting Young Children Check-up

August 3, 2026 updated by: Lucy (Kathleen) McGoron, Ph.D., Wayne State University

Randomized Clinical Trial of the Parenting Young Children Check-up in Pediatric Primary Care

The proposed project aims to evaluate the Parenting Young Children Check-up (PYCC) through a randomized clinical trial in a pediatric primary care practice in Detroit that primarily serves low-income families. Fifty parents will be randomized to intervention (n = 25) or control (n = 25) conditions. We will follow up with parents 1 month and 3-months later to test the impact of the program on children's behavioral health/disruptive behavior problems, parenting, and parenting stress and to examine how much parents in the intervention group make use of and report satisfaction with the PYCC program.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This study will test three hypotheses. First, we hypothesize that randomization to the PYCC intervention group, as compared to the control group, will be related to reduced child behavioral health challenges and disruptive behavior problems. Second, we hypothesize that randomization to the PYCC intervention group, as compared to control, will be related to improved positive parenting and reduced parenting stress. Third, for parents in the intervention group, we hypothesize there will be high rates of module use on the PYCC website (i.e., >50%). Finally, for parents in the intervention group, we also hypothesize that there will be high rates of satisfaction with the PYCC overall and with each PYCC module.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

50

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Contact

Study Locations

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Parent of child ages 2-5 years old
  • Report a score of 9 or higher on the Preschool Pediatric Symptoms Checklist

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Does not speak/read English

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: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention
This arm will go through the initial check-up of the Parenting Young Children Check-up (PYCC), receive text messages from the PYCC, and have access to modules on the PYCC website.
Behavioral: Parenting Young Children Check-up
The Parenting Young Children Check-up (PYCC) is a technology-based program for parents of young children with challenging behavior. The PYCC has three components: 1) the initial check-up, 2) text messages, and 3) the parenting program website.
No Intervention: Control
This arm will only complete assessment measures.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Children's Behavioral Health Challenges
Time Frame: From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 1-month and 3-months post baseline
Measured with the Preschool Pediatric Symptoms Checklist
From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 1-month and 3-months post baseline
Disruptive Behavior Problems
Time Frame: From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 1-month and 3-months post baseline
Measured with the Eyberg Behavior Checklist
From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 1-month and 3-months post baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Parenting Stress
Time Frame: From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 1-month and 3-months post baseline
Measured with the Parenting Stress Index
From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 1-month and 3-months post baseline
Parenting
Time Frame: From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 1-month and 3-months post baseline
Measured with the Preschool Version of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire
From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 1-month and 3-months post baseline

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Use of Modules on the PYCC Website
Time Frame: From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 1-month and 3-months post baseline
Number of modules used
From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 1-month and 3-months post baseline
Satisfaction with the Parenting Young Children Check-up
Time Frame: From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 3-months post baseline
From enrollment (baseline) to follow-up at 3-months post baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Wayne State University

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 (Actual)

November 1, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 23, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 3, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

August 6, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 6, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 3, 2026

Last Verified

August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB-25-07-7947
  • #R2-2025-13_PR-25-933 (Other Grant/Funding Number: The Children's Foundation)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

All participation will be confidential.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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