EFFECTIVE HUMAN SERVICES LLC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NICHD

Description

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant There is a strong body of evidence supporting the use of behavioral parenting strategies in dealing with child behavioral problems Empirically supported behavioral parent training protocols exist e g Barkley Eyberg Forgatch and Patterson Kazdin WebsterMStratton and Reid to teach parents how to employ these strategies but there is also a large amount of misinformation opinion and conflicting ideas concurrently being disseminated The Internet has made the process of getting accurate best practice information harder rather than less cumbersome because of the great amount and variable quality of parenting information available A Google search of andquot parent parentingandquot produces results andquot behavioral parentingandquot reduces this is and andquot empirically validated behavioral parentingandquot still returns results search conducted using Google Chrome Parents need a resource to receive trust worthy information in a digestible format that would assist them in being able to use this information to develop behavioral programs for their children As important as accurate information is implementation integrity An effective empirically supported behavior plan is faced with numerous barriers to consistent implementation There are a wide variety of factors that can interfere with the implementation of even the strongest parenting strategies and both needing timely reminders and tracking the details Webster Stratton are frequently noted These barriers however are also noted as exactly the kinds of factors that technology is often able to address Hollon et al NIMH In this Phase I application we propose developing an application andquot ParentNetandquot which will help parents to utilize best practices in behavioral parenting to create personalized specific programs for their children After the behavioral program has been created ParentNet will track timelines incentives and other details to assist parents in maintaining the program that they have created An initial proof of concept mobile internet version of this program and reminder set will be developed in the Phase I project and tested with a group of parents of children with challenging behaviors If the Phase I project can meet the benchmarks a prototype is developed and parents are able to utilize the interface and report finding it helpful we foresee moving to develop the full product in Phase II This completed parenting resource would start with the Phase I infrastructure incorporate feedback from Phase I participants and add planned additional features including building an ability to track behavioral progress across time additional feedback to parents will be offered with reminders about timelines and incentives earned and a youth interface will push information to children about timelines incentives received and progress toward individual goals In addition we would foresee having a stronger empirical test of the ParentNet system as a behavioral parenting strategy by comparing individuals who are randomly selected to receive the application with a control condition in terms of changes in parenting behavior PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE This application ParentNet will promote behavioral parenting strategies by first helping parents to create a behavioral program for their child ren using advice from experts in the field Parents will use a mobile web based interface to create positively framed individualized behavioral goals and plan for each child in their care Once developed ParentNet will be field tested for usability and usefulness with a group of foster parents of high risk children Parents will rate the level of support needed confidence in the system and ease of use at each stage in the development initiation and maintenance of the behavioral system