Budden, Timothy, Dimmock, James, Jackson, Ben, Law, Kwok Hong, March, Sonja, Muller, Jessica, and Tomlin, Luke (2022) Understanding parent perspectives on engagement with online youth-focused mental health programs. In: [Presented at the Psychological Science and Wellbeing Conference 2022]. From: Psychological Science and Wellbeing Conference 2022, 4-5 March 2022, Singapore and Online.

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Abstract

Background: Online self-help programs have become increasingly popular as a means of early intervention for various mental health problems in children and adolescents. At the forefront of online youth-focused health programs in Australia is BRAVE Self-Help, an evidence-based program designed for children and teenagers with early signs of anxiety, and for parents to support their child in managing anxiety. Despite BRAVE Self-Help’s popularity, the program shares the same challenge as many online health programs when delivered without therapist support that of low participant engagement. In this study, we asked parents who had previously registered in BRAVE Self-Help to (a) describe the factors that influenced their engagement in online health programs, and (b) provide recommendations for enhancing online program engagement for parents.

Method: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 parents (M age = 44, SD = 4) who had registered for BRAVE Self-Help within a 6-month period prior to data collection. Data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis.

Results: We observed evidence of social-, family- and program-related factors that drove parents’ engagement in, and recommendations for, online child health programs. Social factors included sub-themes relating to levels of professional and community support. Family sub-themes included competing priorities, condition severity, and prior experience. Program sub-themes included general and specific design elements for promoting engagement (utility and usability).

Conclusion: Program designers could target support systems, include flexible delivery options, and use iterative design processes to enhance parent engagement.

Item ID:	85027
Item Type:	Conference Item (Abstract / Summary)
Related URLs:	https://www.jcu.edu.sg/psych-sci-wellbei...
Date Deposited:	31 Mar 2025 22:42
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