Abstract
BackgroundThe Enhancing Parenting Skills (EPaS) 2014 programme is a home-based, health visitor-delivered parenting support programme for parents of children with identified behaviour problems. This trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the EPaS 2014 programme compared to a waiting-list treatment as usual control group.Methods/DesignThis is a pragmatic, multicentre randomised controlled trial. Sixty health visitors will each be asked to identify two families that have a child scoring above the clinical cut-off for behaviour problems using the Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory (ECBI). Families recruited to the trial will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio into an intervention or waiting-list control group. Randomisation will occur within health visitor to ensure that each health visitor has one intervention family and one control family. The primary outcome is change in child behaviour problems as measured by the parent-reported ECBI. Secondary outcomes include other measures of child behaviour, parent behaviour, and parental depression as measured by parent-reports and an independent observation of parent and child behaviour. Follow-up measures will be collected 6-months after the collection of baseline measures.DiscussionThis is the first rigorous evaluation of the EPaS 2014 programme. The trial will provide important information on the effectiveness of a one-to-one home-based intervention, delivered by health visitors, for pre-school children with behaviour problems. It will also examine potential mediating (improved parent behaviour and/or improved parental depression) and moderating (single parent, teenage parent, poverty, low education level) factors.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN06867279 (18 June 2014)
Highlights
The Enhancing Parenting Skills (EPaS) 2014 programme is a home-based, health visitor-delivered parenting support programme for parents of children with identified behaviour problems
Health visitors are asked to approach families on their caseloads that have a child aged between 30 and 48 months and have expressed concerns about their child’s behaviour. They ask the parents to complete the Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory (ECBI) questionnaire. If they do not score above the clinical cut-off for child behaviour problems, the health visitor will thank them for their time and proceed to find an eligible family
Other research with parenting programmes has shown that health visitors are effective in identifying parents in need of support for their child’s behaviour problems, with 81% of families identified agreeing to a visit from a researcher and 93% of those families giving informed consent [18]
Summary
One of the challenges of conducting this research will be the recruitment of ‘hard to reach’ families These families can be difficult to work with due to their lack of engagement with services and/or difficulties accessing services. This is why health visitors will be identifying families for the trial as well as delivering the intervention. Health visitors will be fully aware of the details of the study and will be briefed on the best means of presenting the study in a positive way to parents This is the first rigorous evaluation of the EPaS 2014 programme and will potentially be a valuable addition to the child behaviour problem literature.
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