Evaluation of a Video-Based Media Series to Promote Effective Parenting

描述(由申请人提供)：相当多的研究指出，幼儿的对立、挑衅和破坏性行为的发生率相对较高，并且它们在为后来的社会情感、行为和学业问题(如药物使用、犯罪和学业失败)建立长期问题轨迹方面具有重要意义。父母处理这些具有挑战性的行为的技能将影响他们孩子的长期发展轨迹。家长培训计划在减少不同年龄段儿童的行为问题方面显示出很大的价值，从而降低了他们随后使用药物和其他青春期问题的风险。然而，这些育儿方案的影响范围有限，因为在招募和留住父母方面存在巨大挑战，以至于大多数可以从育儿援助中受益的父母永远得不到帮助。减少破坏性行为问题的流行将需要公共卫生方法来改善育儿做法，使基于证据的育儿干预措施广泛可用，并以各种形式可用。大众媒体，特别是电视，作为一项全民战略的一部分，具有巨大的潜力，这项战略旨在将循证育儿做法带给广大面临抚养子女困难的父母。然而，电视可能影响育儿的研究关注很少；因此，关于影响育儿实践的媒体信息可能是如何优化设计的，人们知之甚少。这项研究将开发和实验评估一部10集、简短(每集7分钟)、基于视频、信息娱乐风格的高质量媒体系列剧的两个变体，该系列剧的目标是父母的养育实践，源于三重P-积极的父母养育计划(Sanders，1999)。将随机抽取300个3-6岁有某种程度破坏性行为问题的家庭，以(A)收到该系列的仅限信息版本，其中仅包括目标父母技能的建模和演示，(B)获得该系列的增强行为激活版本，该系列旨在通过解决归因、自我效能和期望、社会支持和情绪反应的元素，积极促进父母行为的改变，或(C)等待名单控制。在基线、干预后和6个月的随访中，将获得父母养育方式、认知、情感和社会支持以及儿童破坏性行为问题的测量结果。将检验标准版和增强版的Triple P媒体系列在改善这些结果方面的相对有效性，以及这些影响的调节因素，如行为问题的基线水平和父母的压力。这项研究将进一步加深我们对电视节目对于改善育儿实践的潜在价值的理解。通过电视将有效的育儿节目带给大量的父母，有可能减少儿童行为问题的患病率，并降低后来出现问题的风险，如药物使用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Considerable research points to the relatively high prevalence of young children's oppositional, defiant, and disruptive behaviors and their importance in establishing long-term problematic trajectories for later socioemotional, conduct, and academic problems (Campbell, 1995), such as substance use, delinquency, and school failure. The skill with which parents are able to handle these challenging behaviors will influence the long-term developmental trajectories of their children. Parent training programs have shown much value in reducing behavior problems for children of a broad range of ages, thereby reducing their risk for subsequent substance use and other problems of adolescence. The reach of these parenting pro- grams are limited, however, by substantial challenges in recruiting and retaining parents, such that most parents who could benefit from parenting assistance never receive it. Reducing the prevalence of disruptive behavior problems will require public health approaches for improving parenting practices that make evidence-based parenting interventions widely available and accessible in a range of formats. The mass media, and television in particular, hold significant potential as part of a population-wide strategy for bringing evidence-based parenting practices to a broad range of parents experiencing challenges raising their children. The potential of television for affecting parenting has received very little research attention, however; thus, little is known about how media messages to affect parenting practices might be optimally designed. This study will develop and experimentally evaluate two variants of a 10-episode, brief (7 minutes per episode), video-based, infotainment-style broadcast-quality media series targeted at parenting practices, derived from the Triple P-Positive Parenting Program (Sanders, 1999). A sample of 300 families of children ages 3-6 years with somewhat elevated disruptive behavior problems will be randomized to (a) receive an Information-Only version of the series that includes only modeling and demonstration of target parenting skills, (b) receive an Enhanced Behavior Activation version of the series designed to actively pro- mote parental behavior change, through elements addressing attributions, self-efficacy and expectancies, social support, and emotional reactivity, or (c) Waitlist Control. Measures of parents' parenting practices, cognitions, affect, and social support, and children's disruptive behavior problems, will be obtained at base- line, post-intervention, and 6-month follow-up. The relative efficacy of the Standard and Enhanced versions of the Triple P Media Series in improving these outcomes will be examined, as well as moderators of these effects, such as baseline level of behavior problems and parental stress. This study will further our under- standing of the potential value of television programming for improving parenting practices. Bringing effective parenting programs to large numbers of parents through television has the potential to reduce the prevalence of children's behavior problems, and to reduce risks for later problems such as substance use.