Engaging Parents in School-Based Prevention Programming Using Media and Online Technology

Developmental theory supports the inclusion of parents in school-based prevention programming; however, the actual practice of including parents remains challenging. To involve parents, many existing programs offer parenting classes outside the home, but parents may experience multiple participation barriers, including time constraints, transportation or childcare. Consequently, many existing programs experience low participation rates. Use of the mass media represents a promising innovation to address many of the participation barriers faced by parents.

            This paper presents one effort to include urban, predominately African American, Head Start parents in an existing school-based prevention program, the GOALS Program. The GOALS Program targets the development of behavior problems in preschool children through the promotion of social, emotional and academic behaviors. Using a three stage process, the current study first surveyed parents (n = 232) to determine media use patterns, preferences to be contacted with program-related information (via text messages, social media or email) and parenting concerns. These data were used to inform the second stage of the project, the development of a website to accompany the GOALS Program. Parents (n = 30) tested the website over successive iterations, offering suggestions for improvement. For example, parents suggested including a page with links to online parenting and child development resources. After incorporating parents’ suggestions, the finalized website was available over a four month period. Based on parent preferences indicated in stage one, text messaging, social media and print media were used to encourage website visits. In the final phase of the study, parents (n = 162) were surveyed to determine overall website impressions. Parents indicated website content on behavioral self-control and friendship/emotions was most useful. Using Google Analytics, a website statistics tracking program, at most, approximately 20% of the target population accessed the website at least once. This contrasts with parent self-reported website visits, in which approximately 64% of parents surveyed claimed to have visited the website at least once. Overall, parents cited the printed newsletter as more effective than text messaging and social media in encouraging website visits.

            Similar to comparable studies, the current study reached a similar percentage of parents with program-related information. The current study is unique in demonstrating creative use of technology to reach the population of interest. Future research may seek to use the GOALS website as part of a broader prevention strategy, possibly offering website materials to parents of children who show behavior problems.