Session: Innovative Research Designs in Parenting Intervention Science (Society for Prevention Research 26th Annual Meeting)

Efforts to optimize prevention science are critical for moving science forward and enhancing the public health impact of evidence-based prevention approaches. This organized “20 x 20” presentation will showcase a number of funded research projects employing innovative research designs in the context of parenting intervention science. This group of presentations will detail how cutting-edge research approaches and innovative methods of answering research questions are being leveraged to enhance the impact of an evidence-based parenting program, with the goal of expanding the reach of evidence-based prevention services to underserved populations and addressing associated mental health disparities in the U.S. and around the world.

The studies in this organized presentation all demonstrate innovative research designs related to the evidence-based parenting program referred to as GenerationPMTO (previously known as Parent Management Training – the Oregon Model [PMTO]). GenerationPMTO seeks to prevent child behavioral problems by working to bolster positive parenting practices and reduce coercive parent-child interactions. The efficacy of GenerationPMTO is supported by decades of research, and it is currently being implemented across a variety of national and international contexts.

This themed “20 x 20” presentation will feature six different parenting intervention research studies employing innovative research designs and/or methods. Study 1 employs a sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trial SMART design to optimize a parenting program for military families. Study 2 describes an innovative use of existing video data to empirically determine core components of an intervention. Study 3 the development of a culturally adapted evidence-based intervention for Latino parents of preschool children drawing on media- and texting-based strategies. Study 4 describes two RCTs with Latino immigrants, including the novel application of a differential cultural adaptation design. Study 5 provides an in-depth look at a multistep approach to cultural adaptation meant to optimize an evidence-based parenting intervention for post-conflict and resettled refugee communities. Study 6 addresses critical issues of fidelity with regard to system-wide implementation of an evidence-based parenting intervention across three countries. This dynamic and informative session will illustrate the rigorous use of these approaches to optimize prevention science and expand the reach of evidence-based parenting interventions.