This protocol describes a research and development (R&D) project aimed at optimizing a targeted, preventive, efficacious, and tailored intervention called Supportive Parents Coping Kids (SPARCK). Combining recent developments in basic and intervention research, the goal of this project is to develop, test and optimize a unified parent training intervention targeting children who display externalizing and internalizing symptoms and parents who are at risk of exhibiting maladaptive or neglectful parenting behaviors. We plan to utilize various design-based research methodologies to investigate what works for whom in which context, points which are essential to the innovation process, by employing a mixed methods research design and an iterative optimization process of testing and refinement. Furthermore, we introduce a cocreation process for SPARCK to involve relevant stakeholders working in Norwegian frontline services for children and their families to ensure that the intervention adheres to the needs and constraints encountered by these stakeholders and thereby promote the scalability and sustainable implementation of SPARCK. In this paper, we present the theoretical and methodological background of this approach to R&D in the field of mental health prevention as well as the operationalization of innovative methodology in the current project. This R&D approach aims to produce new knowledge concerning individual change mechanisms in parent training interventions and stakeholder feedback pertaining to intervention components and implementation strategies, all of which are imperative for the iterative SPARCK design process.

BackgroundNorwegian health, care, and welfare services are experiencing increased demands to deliver services that are safe, effective, of high quality, and that ensure user involvement. Yet, evidence-based treatment for common disorders such as depression, anxiety, trauma, and behavioral problems in children are not regularly used in clinical practice in Norway. Possible explanations for this are that many standard, evidence-based treatments may have difficulty addressing the complexity and comorbidity of referred children and the fact that children’s treatment needs often shift during treatment. The Modular Approach to Therapy for children with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma and Conduct problems (MATCH-ADTC) was designed to address these challenges and reduce some of the barriers to therapists’ use of evidence-based treatment in their practice.Methods/designParticipants will include 280 children (aged 6–14.5 years at intake) who receive treatment in child and adolescent mental health outpatient clinics in Norway, and their families. Families are randomly assigned to either the experimental group receiving treatment from therapists trained in MATCH, or to the comparison group receiving treatment from therapists delivering treatment as usual (TAU). Data on children’s symptomology, child and family functioning, demographics, background information, and mental health outcomes are collected as well as frequent feedback on treatment response, plus video-recordings of treatment sessions and implementation quality scores from each participating clinic. Questionnaires are administered in six waves.DiscussionMATCH has been tested in the US with promising results, but we do not know whether this treatment approach will produce similar results in Norway. The implications of this study arePossibly better treatment outcomes and/or more efficient improvements for children and families treated in mental health outpatient clinics in NorwayClinicians learning to use more evidence-based practices in their treatmentImplementation of standard procedures for obtaining feedback from children and families and sharing the feedback with cliniciansIncreased understanding, at the end of the trial, of whether introducing MATCH improves outcomes for children and families treated in mental health outpatient clinicsTrial registrationISRCTN, registration number: ISRCTN24029895. Registered on 8 August 2016.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13063-018-3074-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.