Measuring participation in a prevention trial with parents of young children

Abstract

This paper describes parent participation in a clinical trial of preventive parent training (PT) targeting low-income parents of young children. Participation encompassed enrollment, attendance, and engagement. Average enrollment rate was 34.9%, although enrollment rates were significantly higher in the control (39.1%) than in the intervention (30.6%) centers. Parents attended an average of 39% of the PT sessions. Higher attendance was associated with lower parenting self-efficacy, more parent-reported child behavior problems, and attending the first PT session. Level of engagement in the PT sessions was related to improvements in parent and child outcomes. Findings suggest that attendance is linked to parent perceived need for help and that resources should be focused on ensuring parent attendance at the first intervention session.

Participation Patterns Among Mexican–American Parents Enrolled in a Universal Intervention and Their Association with Child Externalizing Outcomes

“…Family income, parent education, and number of children in the home are three sociodemographic barriers to intervention attendance. Some research shows parents with less income and less education are at risk for premature termination (Coatsworth et al, 2006b;Reyno & McGrath 2006), but other studies do not support these associations (Garvey et al, 2006;Nix et al, 2009). Retention may also be lower among parents with many children compared to parents with fewer children due to childcare needs and parenting responsibilities.…”

Conceptualizing Culturally Infused Engagement and Its Measurement for Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Children and Families

“…Within these domains, empirical literature has assessed, for example, session attendance (Nock and Ferriter 2005), adherence (Garvey et al 2006;Nock and Ferriter 2005), therapeutic alliance (Bordin 1994), and cognitive preparation (Becker et al 2015).…”

Preventing alcohol misuse in young people: an exploratory cluster randomised controlled trial of the Kids, Adults Together (KAT) programme

“…This programme recruited parents through day-care centres, but only 31% of those eligible in intervention centres enrolled; the most frequent reasons for not enrolling were being unaware of the programme, being too busy or the programme conflicting with work/school schedules. 59 Retention often proves equally problematic. When Incredible Years, a parenting programme for parents of 2-to 10-year-olds, was implemented in one English city, 38% of enrolled families never attended a session, and even after efforts to improve retention this only fell to 30%.…”