Abstract
BackgroundConsidering the high burden of disease of psychosocial problems in children and adolescents, early intervention regarding problem behaviour of young children is very important. The Preventive Child Healthcare (PCH) offers a good setting to detect such problem behaviour and to provide parenting support to the parents concerned. This paper aims to describe the design of an effectiveness study of a parenting programme for parents of children with mild psychosocial problems after an initial, evidence based screening in routine PCH.Methods/DesignThe effects of the intervention will be studied in a randomised controlled trial. Prior to a routine PCH health examination, parents complete a screening questionnaire on psychosocial problems. Parents of children with increased but still subclinical levels of psychosocial problems will be assigned at random to the experimental group (Triple P, level 3) or to the control group (care as usual). Outcome measures, such as problem behaviour in the child and parenting behaviour, will be assessed before, directly after and 6 and 12 months after the intervention.DiscussionParenting support may be an effective intervention to reduce psychosocial problems in children but evidence-based parenting programmes that fit the needs of the PCH are not available as yet. Although the Triple P programme seems promising and suitable for a universal population approach, evidence on its effectiveness in routine PCH still lacks.Trial registrationNTR1338
Highlights
Considering the high burden of disease of psychosocial problems in children and adolescents, early intervention regarding problem behaviour of young children is very important
Parenting support may be an effective intervention to reduce psychosocial problems in children but evidence-based parenting programmes that fit the needs of the Preventive Child Healthcare (PCH) are not available as yet
This paper aims to describe the design of an effectiveness study of a parenting programme for parents of children with mild problem behaviour after an initial screening in routine PCH
Summary
This paper presents the design of a randomised controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of a parenting programme (Triple P level 3) for parents of children with psychosocial problems after an initial, evidence based screening in routine PCH. Studying the effects of this intervention is important as it aims (1) to reduce the burden of disease of psychosocial problems in children [4,5] and (2) to contribute to the use of evidence-based care for children with psychosocial problems. Introducing an evidencebased programme may lead to a more recognisable and consistent approach to parenting support by the PCH. This short intervention can be embedded in the regular procedure. Level 3 of the Triple P programme in combination with an available evidencebased detection of psychosocial problems in children may lead to a comprehensive evidence-based method to reduce the burden of disease due to psychosocial problems. Governmental organisations and policymakers may use the results of this study to develop future policy concerning parenting support provided by community healthcare workers
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