Supporting Parents and Kids through Lockdown Experiences (SPARKLE)

新冠肺炎的首次封锁和对日常生活的持续限制给家庭带来了前所未有的挑战。长时间的联合监禁，通常是在非常有限的空间内，与朋友和家人隔绝，面对往往增加的工作需求，父母越来越多地要求父母照顾孩子，与心理和身体健康有关的担忧以及与金钱有关的担忧，使父母与子女之间的关系承受着巨大的压力。与此一致的是，追踪早期封锁以来家庭心理健康变化的全国性研究Co-SPACE发现，父母报告的儿童行为问题和相关家庭相关压力显著上升。引人注目的是，70%的共用空间家长表示，他们希望得到更多的支持，最好是以数字形式提供。如果不加以解决，这些问题很可能会持续下去。专业人士也普遍担心，随着大流行的继续，以及随之而来的对人们生活的限制，它们可能会进一步增加。家庭面临着不断需要重新调整以适应新的程序、结构和挑战。尽管儿童已重返校园，许多家长能够外出工作，但许多托儿所并未完全开放，学校不得不做出实质性调整，以符合为遏制病毒传播而出台的公共卫生措施。随着疫情的持续以及进一步严格限制措施的威胁，包括另一次封锁，我们似乎可能会看到，随着越来越多的家长向专业人士寻求额外的培训、支持和建议，学校面临越来越大的压力，儿童服务已经捉襟见肘。这将进一步扩大需要帮助和提供帮助之间本已存在的巨大差距，并使许多家庭得不到至关重要的支助。根据现有的健康不平等研究，这可能会不成比例地影响社会中最脆弱的部分。在Spotle中，我们将研究为参与Co-space研究的家庭提供一款提供信息和育儿支持的应用程序--Parent Positive，是否可以扭转与封锁相关的负面影响，以改善家庭福祉，减轻服务压力。Parent Positive应用程序围绕一系列45秒的动画构建，呈现了八条关于管理孩子行为的基本信息，这些信息是由家长和育儿专家精心挑选的，因为它们与疫情有关。这些动画轻松、幽默、不带偏见，由8位也是父母的知名名人发布。这八条信息涉及：(1)保持积极和积极(奥利维亚·科尔曼)；(2)确保每个人都知道对他们的期望是什么(莎伦·霍根)；(3)建立你孩子的自信和信任(丹尼·戴尔)；(4)让你的孩子听从指示(罗布·布莱登)；(5)促进更好的行为(杰西卡·恩尼斯-希尔)；(6)限制冲突(霍莉·威洛比)；(7)当你的孩子调皮捣蛋时保持冷静(罗梅什·兰加纳森)；(8)谨慎使用制裁(沙皮·霍尔桑迪)。动画将由一段视频补充，提供如何以及何时使用动画的实用提示，每条消息的扩展和更详细的说明，有用的帮助来源和可下载资源的链接，以及建立网络以寻找同行支持的机会。为了测试父母积极是否能够逆转封锁的负面影响，616名Co-space父母参加了这项研究。一半的家庭将被允许使用这款应用，另一半的家庭将不能。然后，我们将测试这款应用程序与不使用相比，是否对儿童的行为产生积极影响。如果结果是积极的，这款应用将通过与英格兰公共卫生和教育部的合作，以及商业媒体合作伙伴的合作，迅速向英格兰各地的家庭提供。

The first COVID-19 lockdown and continuing restrictions on everyday life have presented families with unprecedented challenges. Extended joint confinement, often within very limited space, isolation from friends and family, increased demands on parents to deliver childcare in face of often increased work demands, mental and physical health-related and money-related worries, have placed relationships between parents and with their children under great pressure. Consistent with this, Co-SPACE, a nationwide study tracking changes in families' mental health since early lockdown, found a significant rise in parent-reported children's behaviour problems and associated family-related stress. Strikingly, 70% of parents in Co-SPACE reported wanting additional support preferably delivered in digital form.These problems are likely to persist if left unaddressed. There is also widespread concern amongst professionals that they may increase further as the pandemic continues, and with it the restrictions put on people's lives. Families are faced with continuous need to readjust to new routines, structures and challenges. Although children have returned to school and many parents are able to work outside home, many childcare settings are not fully open, and schools have had to make substantial adjustments to comply with the public health measures introduced to curb the spread of the virus. It seems likely that as the pandemic continues and with it the threat of further severe restrictions, including another lockdown, we will see growing pressures on schools and already over-stretched children's services, as more parents seek additional training, support and advice from professionals. This will further increase the already substantial gap between the need for help and the availability of that help and leave many families without access to vital support. Based on existing research of health inequalities, this is likely to disproportionately affect the most vulnerable sections of society. In SPARKLE, we will examine whether providing families, who have taken part in the Co-SPACE study, with an app delivering information and parenting support, Parent Positive, can reverse negative lockdown-related effects to improve families' wellbeing and reduce pressures on services. The Parent Positive app is built around a series of 45-second animations presenting eight foundational messages about managing children's behaviour, which have been carefully selected by parents and parenting experts for their relevance to the pandemic situation.They are light-hearted, humorous and non-judgemental in nature and are delivered by eight high-profile celebrities who are also parents. The eight messages relate to: (1) staying positive and motivated (Olivia Colman); (2) making sure everyone knows what is expected of them (Sharon Horgan); (3) building your child's self confidence and trust (Danny Dyer); (4) getting your child to follow instructions (Rob Brydon); (5) promoting better behaviour (Jessica Ennis-Hill); (6) limiting conflict (Holly Willoughby); (7) keeping calm when your kids act up (Romesh Ranganathan); (8) careful use of sanctions (Shappi Khorsandi). The animations will be supplemented with a video offering practical tips on how and when to use the animations, extended and more detailed accounts of each message, links to useful sources of help and downloadable resources, as well the opportunity to network to find peer support. To test whether Parent Positive can reverse the negative effects of lockdown, 616 Co-SPACE parents will take part in this study. Half the families will be given access to the app and half will not. We will then test whether the app has a positive effect on children's behaviour compared to not using it. If results are positive, the app will be rapidly made available to families across England through collaboration with Public Health England and the Department for Education, in cooperation with commercial media partners.