Predicting Success in an Online Parenting Intervention: The Role of Child, Parent, and Family Factors

The present study involved an examination of the extent to which child, parent, family, and program-related factors predicted child behavior and parenting outcomes following participation in an 8-session parenting program delivered online. Participants were mothers and fathers of 97 children aged between three and eight years displaying elevated levels of disruptive behavior problems. For both mothers and fathers, child behavior outcomes at post-intervention were predicted by the number of sessions of the intervention completed by the family. For mother reports, post-intervention effects on child behavior were also predicted by the quality of the mother-child relationship at baseline; for father reports, baseline child behavior severity was an additional predictor of child behavior outcomes. Program effects on mothers’ ineffective parenting at post-intervention was predicted by session completion and pre-intervention levels of ineffective parenting, while the only predictor of outcomes on fathers’ ineffective parenting at post-intervention was pre-intervention levels of ineffective parenting. Socioeconomic risk, parental adjustment, and father participation in the intervention were not significant predictors of mother- or father-reported treatment outcomes. The implications of the findings for the provision of online parenting support are discussed.