Improving Preschoolers' Mental Health: A RCT Assessing Two Parenting Programs

This RCT with a 1-year follow-up aims to assess the superiority of the How-to Parenting Program in improving parental autonomy support and preschoolers' mental health (i.e., decreases externalizing problems) among vulnerable families. One out of five children younger than age 7 presents mental disorders. Without proper help, such difficulties impede later health and functioning, making early intervention aimed to reduce mental health problems a social imperative.

Among environmental factors, parenting quality is the most widely accepted predictor of child mental health. Decades of parenting research show that parenting quality has three components fostering child development and mental health: affiliation, structure, and autonomy support. Investigators aim to assess the impact of the How-to Parenting Program, an accessible program that addresses all components of parenting quality. Reseacrhers will compare it to the Nobody's Perfect (NP) program, a program delivered in communities across Canada that is similar in format (6 weekly group sessions), similar in cost (no costly certification), but different in content (NP does not focus on parenting skills).

In a prior wait-list RCT with school-aged children, investigators found that the How-to Parenting Program improved both parenting quality and child mental health. The present RCT aims to test whether teaching concrete parenting skills that target empirically-based parenting dimensions (via the How-to Parenting Program) improves parental autonomy support and the mental health of younger children to a greater extent than the NP Program.

Investigators will recruit 320 parents of 3- and 4-year-olds from a large pool of early childhood centers (ECCs; i.e., family resource centers and daycares). At each of five yearly waves, ECCs will be randomized to the experimental condition (4 How-to groups; ≈ 32 parents) or the active control condition (4 NP groups; ≈ 32 parents). Parents will fill out questionnaires before (T1) and after programs delivery (T2) and at 6-month (T3) and 1-year follow-ups (T4). Both programs will be delivered online, by two trained facilitators. Parents, blind to their condition allocation, will rate their child's mental health problems and their autonomy-supportive behaviors (primary outcomes) as well as their child's socio-emotional competencies, and other parental behaviors and cognitions. Parent-child filmed interactions will allow observational measures of child self-regulated behaviors and parenting quality). Based on prior findings, investigators expect greater improvements in parental autonomy support and child mental health in the How-to condition compared to the NP condition. Investigators also expect larger improvements on secondary outcomes in the How-to condition, with the exception of the parental cognitions specifically targeted by NP (problem-solving; social support). Finally, researchers expect both programs to have similar benefits for among more vulnerable parents.

By evaluating the added benefits of the How-to Parenting Program, this research will reduce the know-do gap, helping practitioners and other stakeholders to make evidence-based decisions regarding the delivery of helpful parenting interventions to improve preschoolers' mental health.

• Change in observed parenting practices [Срок оценки: Baseline and 8-month follow-up.]
• Change in observed child committed compliance [Срок оценки: Baseline and 8-month follow-up.]
• Change in children's socio-emotional competencies [Срок оценки: Baseline, 2-month follow-up, 8-month follow-up, and 14-moth follow-up.]
• Change in children's internalizing problems [Срок оценки: Baseline, 2-month follow-up, 8-month follow-up, and 14-moth follow-up.]
• Change in parental self-compassion [Срок оценки: Baseline, 2-month follow-up, 8-month follow-up, and 14-moth follow-up.]
• Change in parental efficacy [Срок оценки: Baseline, 2-month follow-up, 8-month follow-up, and 14-moth follow-up.]
• Change in parental guilt [Срок оценки: Baseline, 2-month follow-up, 8-month follow-up, and 14-moth follow-up.]
• Change in parental stress [Срок оценки: Baseline, 2-month follow-up, 8-month follow-up, and 14-moth follow-up.]
• Change in parental social support [Срок оценки: Baseline, 2-month follow-up, 8-month follow-up, and 14-moth follow-up.]
• Change in parental problem solving strategies [Срок оценки: Baseline, 2-month follow-up, 8-month follow-up, and 14-moth follow-up.]