The National Institute for Health Innovation, School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Department of Psychological Medicine, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
BMC Public Health. 2018 Oct 26;18(1):1203. doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-6132-z.
Parents play an important role in the lives of adolescents and efforts aimed at strengthening parenting skills and increasing knowledge on adolescent development hold much promise to prevent and mitigate adolescent mental health problems. Innovative interventions that make use of technology-based platforms might be an effective and efficient way to deliver such support to parents. This protocol presents the design of a randomised controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of a SMS-based mobile intervention (MyTeen) for parents of adolescents on promoting parental competence and mental health literacy.
A parallel two-arm randomised controlled trial will be conducted in New Zealand, aiming to recruit 214 parents or primary caregivers of adolescents aged 10-15 years via community outreach and social media. Eligible participants will be allocated 1:1 into the control or the intervention group, stratified by ethnicity. The intervention group will receive a tailored programme of text messages aimed at improving their parental competence and mental health literacy, over 4 weeks. The control group (care-as-usual) will receive no intervention from the research team, but can access alternative services if they wish, and will be offered the intervention programme upon completion of a 3-month post-randomisation follow-up assessment. Data will be obtained at baseline, post intervention (1-month), and 3-month follow up. The primary outcome is parental competence assessed by the Parental Sense of Competence Scale at 1-month follow up. Secondary outcomes include: mental health literacy; knowledge of help-seeking; parental distress; parent-adolescent communication; and programme satisfaction.
To our knowledge this is the first randomised controlled trial on the effectiveness of delivering a parenting support intervention for parents of adolescents solely via a SMS-based mobile intervention. If effective, it could have great potential to reach and support parents of adolescents.
Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ( ACTRN12618000117213 ) Registered on 29/01/2018.
父母在青少年的生活中扮演着重要的角色，努力加强育儿技能并增加青少年发展方面的知识，有望预防和减轻青少年心理健康问题。利用基于技术的平台的创新干预措施可能是向父母提供这种支持的有效和高效方式。本方案介绍了一项随机对照试验的设计，以研究基于短信的移动干预（MyTeen）对青少年父母促进父母能力和心理健康素养的有效性。
这项在新西兰进行的平行双臂随机对照试验旨在通过社区外展和社交媒体招募 214 名 10-15 岁青少年的父母或主要照顾者。符合条件的参与者将按照种族分层，以 1:1 的比例分配到对照组或干预组。干预组将在 4 周内收到旨在提高其父母能力和心理健康素养的个性化短信计划。对照组（常规护理）不会从研究团队获得干预，但如果他们愿意，可以访问其他服务，并在完成 3 个月的随机分组后随访评估后提供干预计划。将在基线、干预后（1 个月）和 3 个月随访时获取数据。主要结局是在 1 个月随访时通过父母能力感量表评估父母能力。次要结局包括：心理健康素养；寻求帮助的知识；父母困扰；父母与青少年的沟通；和计划满意度。
据我们所知，这是第一项仅通过基于短信的移动干预为青少年父母提供育儿支持干预措施的有效性的随机对照试验。如果有效，它有可能极大地帮助到青少年的父母。
澳大利亚新西兰临床试验注册中心（ACTRN12618000117213）于 2018 年 1 月 29 日注册。
