Effect of MyTeen SMS-Based Mobile Intervention for Parents of Adolescents A Randomized Clinical Trial
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Key Points
Question Is a brief parenting program delivered solely via text message effective in improving parental competence and mental health literacy in parents of adolescents?
Findings In this randomized clinical trial of 221 parents and caregivers, significant group differences were observed between those receiving the text-messaging intervention and the control group. Participants who received the text-messaging program reported higher levels of parental competence, improved knowledge of help seeking, improved parent-adolescent communication, and lower levels of parental distress at 1 and 3 months of follow-up compared with the control group.
Meaning The text-messaging program appears to be an effective and feasible way to reach and support a large number of parents to improve parental competence and may represent a less expensive option for service delivery.
Abstract
Importance There is global pressure to respond to the burden posed by adolescent mental health problems. The National Mental Health Commission has made a call for investment in mobile health services directed at prevention and early intervention to relieve the demand on targeted mental health services that are costly to provide. Parents and primary caregivers play a significant role in the lives of adolescents and are important targets for such efforts. Currently, there is no evidence for the effectiveness of programs delivered solely via text message for parents of adolescents.
Objective To evaluate the effects of a text-messaging program (MyTeen) on promoting parental competence and mental health literacy for parents of adolescents.
Design, Setting, and Participants A parallel 2-group randomized clinical trial was conducted in New Zealand. A total of 221 parents and primary caregivers of adolescents aged 10 to 15 years were recruited from March 19 to August 17, 2018, via community outreach and social media and were randomly allocated 1:1 into the control or the intervention group. Statistical analysis was performed on the principle of intention to treat with adjustment for baseline factors and ethnicity.
Intervention A text-messaging program for parents of adolescents (age 10-15 years) to promote parental competence and mental health literacy. Participants received 1 daily text message over 4 weeks.
Main Outcomes and Measures Parental competence, assessed at 1 month after randomization by the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale.
Results In total, 221 participants (214 [96.8%] female) were randomized, 109 to the intervention group and 112 to the control group; 201 participants (91%) completed the trial at 3 months. Significant group difference was observed on the primary outcome at the end of 1 month of intervention, with participants reporting a higher level of parental competence than those in the control group (estimated mean difference, 3.33 points; 95% CI, 1.37-5.29 points; P = .002). Except for knowledge about mental health, all secondary outcomes were significant, including continued improvement in parental competence at 3 months (estimated mean difference, 4.08 points; 95% CI, 1.96-6.20 points; P < .001), knowledge of help seeking (estimated mean difference, 0.99 points; 95% CI, 0.49-1.50 points; P < .001), parental distress (estimated mean difference, −2.39 points; 95% CI, −4.37 to −0.40 points; P = .02), and parent-adolescent communication (estimated mean difference, 2.21 points; 95% CI, 0.48-3.95 points; P = .01), with participants in the intervention group reporting better parenting-related outcomes than the control group at 1 and 3 months after the intervention.
Conclusions and Relevance This text-messaging program for parents of adolescents appears to be an effective and feasible way to facilitate the implementation and delivery of evidence-based information to populations that are not easily reached with other intervention modalities. The program can be easily scaled up for delivery as an early preventive intervention and may represent a less expensive option for service delivery.
Trial Registration anzctr.org.au Identifier: ACTRN12618000117213
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