Feasibility, Acceptability, and Preliminary Effectiveness of the Asynchronous Implementation of the eParenting CARE Program

Detailed Description Early difficulties with emotion regulation (ER) in parents, including challenges managing stress, frustration, and negative affect, are well-established risk factors for the development of children's own ER difficulties and broader emotional and behavioural problems. Parent ER and ES practices play a central role in children's emotional development through modeling, coaching, and responses to children's emotional experiences, consistent with intergenerational and family-based models of emotional development (Morris et al., 2007). When parents experience difficulties regulating their own emotions, they may be more likely to respond to children's emotions in dismissive, punitive, or inconsistent ways, which can interfere with the development of adaptive ER skills in children.

The eParenting CARE Program was designed to strengthen parent ER and promote supportive ES practices in order to improve children's ER abilities and overall emotional well-being. The program integrates evidence-based strategies drawn from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and emotion coaching frameworks. The intervention focuses on building parents' internal ER capacities alongside practical parenting strategies, recognizing that parents' ability to regulate their own emotions is foundational to implementing supportive responses to children's emotional needs. The eParenting CARE Program is delivered in an asynchronous, self-guided online format to reduce common barriers to participation such as scheduling constraints, childcare demands, and geographic access limitations.

This project addresses a gap in the existing literature by evaluating a parent-focused, asynchronous emotion-focused parenting intervention for families of school-aged children. While synchronous and in-person emotion-focused parenting programs have demonstrated effectiveness, fewer studies have examined the feasibility and acceptability of fully self-guided formats that may offer greater scalability and accessibility. By focusing on parent ER and ES as primary intervention targets, this study aims to contribute to the understanding of how family-focused, digitally delivered supports can promote positive emotional development in children while supporting parental well-being.

The current study will conduct a single-group, mixed-methods feasibility pilot trial to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the eParenting CARE Program when delivered in an asynchronous online format. Parents or legal guardians of children aged 8 to 13 years will be recruited to participate. Participants will complete baseline assessments prior to beginning the intervention and post-intervention assessments following completion of the five-module program. A subset of participants will also complete semi-structured qualitative interviews to provide detailed feedback on program usability, engagement, barriers to participation, and recommendations for future implementation.

The primary aim of the study is to examine the feasibility and acceptability of the eParenting CARE Program, as indexed by recruitment, retention, program completion, and participant satisfaction. The secondary, exploratory aims are to examine pre- to post-intervention changes in parent ER, parent ES behaviours, and parent-reported child ER. Additional exploratory outcomes include identifying implementation challenges and facilitators that may inform future refinements to the program and guide the design of subsequent randomized controlled trials.