Understanding parent perspectives on engagement with online youth-focused mental health programs

Abstract

Objective Online youth-focused health programs often include parent modules—that equip parents with skills to assist their child in improving their health—alongside youth-specific content. BRAVE Self-Help, an evidence-based program designed for children and teenagers with early signs of anxiety, is a popular Australian program that includes six parent modules. Despite its popularity and proven efficacy, BRAVE Self-Help shares the same challenge as many online self-help programs—that of low participant engagement. Using parents registered in BRAVE Self-Help as ‘information rich’ participants, we explored (a) factors that influenced parent engagement in online health programs, and (b) their recommendations for enhancing parent engagement. Design and Outcome Measure We conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 parents registered in BRAVE Self-Help. Data were analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. Results Social-, family- and program-related factors drove parents’ program engagement and recommendations. Social sub-themes related to the benefits of professional and community support in promoting more engagement. Family sub-themes included difficulties with program engagement due to competing priorities, perceptions that condition severity influenced engagement, and feelings that previously-acquired health knowledge reduced motivation to engage. Program sub-themes included perceived usefulness and ease-of-use. Conclusion Program designers could target support systems, include flexible delivery options, and use iterative design processes to enhance parent engagement.