Online Adaptation and Pilot Testing of the ATTACH Parenting Program to Support Child Mental and Emotional Health

What this Trial Is About

The trial investigates the adaptation and pilot testing of the ATTACH2 parenting program, originally designed for in-person delivery, to an online web and mobile format. The program aims to improve childrens mental, emotional, and behavioral health by strengthening the parent-child relationship, particularly for families affected by stressors like depression, addiction, domestic violence, and poverty. This transition responds to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic limiting in-person services and seeks to provide safe, user-friendly virtual mental health support to vulnerable families. The ATTACH2 program consists of 10 to 12 weekly sessions, each about 45 minutes, delivered by trained facilitators such as nurses or social workers. The study involves co-designing virtual interfaces with parents and service providers through four phases user engagement and design exploration, prototyping, software development, and pilot beta testing. The goal is to create a reliable minimum viable product for virtual delivery that incorporates user feedback and meets the needs of families and facilitators. Participants will be involved in pilot testing the virtual program, with assessments conducted before and after the intervention to measure changes in childrens mental, emotional, and behavioral health using age-appropriate tools. Parent-child interaction quality will be assessed using the Parent Child Interaction Teaching Scale. Data will be collected through surveys and focus groups, and refinements will be made based on participant feedback. The study also includes dried blood sample collection for participating families in specific locations, and the total intervention period spans about 10 to 12 weeks.

Adaptation and Pilot Testing of Web and Mobile Interface for the ATTACH™ Intervention