IntroductionMental health issues have been on the rise among children and adolescents, and digital parenting programs have shown promising outcomes. However, there is limited research on the potential efficacy of utilizing chatbots to promote parental skills. This study aimed to understand whether parents learn from a parenting chatbot micro intervention, to assess the overall efficacy of the intervention, and to explore the user characteristics of the participants, including parental busyness, assumptions about parenting, and qualitative engagement with the chatbot.MethodsA sample of 170 parents with at least one child between 2–11 years old were recruited. A randomized control trial was conducted. Participants in the experimental group accessed a 15-min intervention that taught how to utilize positive attention and praise to promote positive behaviors in their children, while the control group remained on a waiting list.ResultsResults showed that participants engaged with a brief AI-based chatbot intervention and were able to learn effective praising skills. Although scores moved in the expected direction, there were no significant differences by condition in the praising knowledge reported by parents, perceived changes in disruptive behaviors, or parenting self-efficacy, from pre-intervention to 24-hour follow-up.DiscussionThe results provided insight to understand how parents engaged with the chatbot and suggests that, in general, brief, self-guided, digital interventions can promote learning in parents. It is possible that a higher dose of intervention may be needed to obtain a therapeutic change in parents. Further research implications on chatbots for parenting skills are discussed.

Previous studies on Behavioral Activation (BA) Online Micro Interventions (OMIs) reported immediate mood benefits but no lasting effects, while the mechanisms by which these interventions improve mood are unknown. This study aimed to analyze the OMI’s impact on self-reported mood and depressive symptoms. A total of 838 participants (mean age = 35.86) were randomized into either BA condition, BA with reminders (BAR), or Waitlist control (WLC). Participants in the BA and BAR conditions showed a significant and small improvement in mood (t(476) =  − 7.23, p < .001. d = .25) from baseline to immediate post. There were no significant differences by condition in self-reported mood (F(113) = .61, p = .543) and PROMIS scores (F(119) = 1.57, p = .213) from baseline to one week follow-up. Self-reported activity levels significantly increased at the seven-day follow-up for both the BA and BAR conditions (F(58) = 8.28, p = .006). Change in activity level significantly predicted self-reported mood at follow up (F(56) = 5.07, p = .03, r = .29, Adjusted R-squared = .068), but did not significantly predict PROMIS scores at follow up (F(59) = .13 p = .72, r = -.05, adjusted r-squared = -.015). Reminders did not improve completion rates (p = .233). Our results found that the Behavioral Activation OMI had a small but significant immediate effect on self-reported mood for participants in the active conditions. While there were no significant differences in mood and depression across conditions at one week follow-up, there was a significant increase in the number of activities they engaged in at one week follow-up. Overall results of a BA OMI were promising.

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