Feasibility of Delivering an Evidence-Based Parenting Program on a Social Media Platform: Lessons Learned

This RWJF funded research project is charged with developing a social media delivery of an evidence-based parenting program (Triple P) and testing its feasibility in a highly vulnerable population.  The new online delivery optimizes a number of elements for success: reach by overcoming delivery barriers, such as limited availability of trained professionals, geography, logistics, social stigma and distrust; access with responsive design for smartphones and tablets; engagement with social interactivity and game play features; safety and program adherence with a Triple P accredited facilitator; and delivery costs.

TPOC (Triple P Online Community) is being tested in an exploratory study from January 2012 through June 2014. The 155 parents recruited from five community agency programs in Los Angeles are highly vulnerable: 86% female; 65% single; 65% incomes less than 10K; 41% history of incarceration; 32% no high school education; 30% in substance abuse treatment; and 24% have had a child removed by child welfare.

The parents were randomly divided into two cohorts, successively pretested, given an access code to TPOC for 12 to 16 weeks and then posttested. Both cohorts have a planned six month follow-up.

We are gathering a trove of data to understand the parent experience: standardized measures of child behavior problems, parent skills, knowledge and attitudes, parent stress, and parent mental health; parent surveys to collect demographics, and perceptions of the social media features; site reporting data to track actual parent behaviors; Google Analytics to document aggregated site usage data; onsite postings; parent focus groups, and agency staff interviews.

The preliminary findings are encouraging. Parents reported that they appreciated the convenience of learning online, the anonymity and also the camaraderie of social media, and most of all the parenting information. 40% of the 155 parents completed all 8 modules. 13% of the sample accessed the site exclusively from their smartphones. They expressed high acceptance and satisfaction with the program giving it an overall grade of an A-; a perception shared by Agency staff.

That said there were many lessons learned. Connectivity problems in the digitally divided Los Angeles continued to pose problems even as the Research Project enhanced existing agency computer labs. Technical and logistical barriers, including working email addresses, remembering passwords and older browsers kept 30% of our users from continuing in the program.

This is the first phase of a larger project that aims to improve parenting practices and subsequent child developmental outcomes, population-wide.