Supporting Parents and Kids through Lockdown Experiences (SPARKLE)

首次COVID-19封锁及日常生活持续受到限制，为家庭带来前所未有的挑战。长期的共同禁闭，往往是在非常有限的空间内，与朋友和家人隔离，对父母的育儿要求增加，而工作要求往往增加，与身心健康有关的担忧和与金钱有关的担忧，使父母之间及其与子女的关系承受巨大压力。与此一致的是，Co-SPACE是一项全国性的研究，跟踪了自早期封锁以来家庭心理健康的变化，发现父母报告的儿童行为问题和相关的家庭压力显着增加。引人注目的是，Co-SPACE中70%的父母表示希望获得更多支持，最好是以数字形式提供。如果不解决这些问题，这些问题可能会持续存在。专业人士也普遍担心，随着大流行的持续，以及对人们生活的限制，他们可能会进一步增加。家庭不断需要重新适应新的惯例、结构和挑战。尽管儿童已经返校，许多家长也能够外出工作，但许多托儿设施尚未完全开放，学校不得不作出重大调整，以遵守为遏制病毒传播而采取的公共卫生措施。随着疫情的持续，以及随之而来的进一步严格限制的威胁，包括另一次封锁，我们可能会看到学校和已经不堪重负的儿童服务面临越来越大的压力，因为越来越多的家长寻求额外的培训，支持和专业人士的建议。这将进一步扩大需要帮助和可获得帮助之间已经很大的差距，使许多家庭无法获得重要的支助。根据对健康不平等的现有研究，这可能对社会最弱势群体产生不成比例的影响。在SPARKLE中，我们将研究是否为参与Co-SPACE研究的家庭提供一个提供信息和育儿支持的应用程序，Parent Positive，可以扭转与封锁相关的负面影响，以改善家庭的福祉并减少服务压力。Parent Positive应用程序是围绕一系列45秒的动画构建的，展示了关于管理儿童行为的八条基本信息，这些信息是由父母和育儿专家根据疫情相关性精心挑选的。它们轻松、幽默、不带评判性，由八位知名人士同时也是父母。这八条信息涉及：（1）保持积极和主动（奥利维亚科尔曼）;（2）确保每个人都知道对他们的期望（3）建立孩子的自信和信任（4）让你的孩子听从指示（5）促进更好的行为（杰西卡·恩尼斯-希尔）;（6）限制冲突（冬青·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）。动画将辅以一个视频，提供如何以及何时使用动画的实用技巧，对每条信息进行更详细的详细说明，链接到有用的帮助来源和可下载资源，以及有机会建立网络以寻求同行支持。为了测试父母积极是否可以扭转封锁的负面影响，616名Co-SPACE父母将参加这项研究。一半的家庭将被允许使用该应用程序，另一半则不会。然后，我们将测试与不使用它相比，该应用程序是否对儿童的行为产生积极影响。如果结果是积极的，该应用程序将通过与英格兰公共卫生部和教育部的合作，与商业媒体合作伙伴合作，迅速提供给英格兰各地的家庭。

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.