Study of an Online Program to Help Parents Talk With Their Tween Children About Health, Gender, Body-Image, and Relationships

Not Applicable

Completed

Conditions: Parent-Child Relations
Parenting
Communication

Registration Number: NCT06408818

Lead Sponsor: Innovation Research & Training

Brief Summary: The goal of this study is to learn if Media Aware Parent - Tween, an online program for parents of children ages 9-12, helps parents have effective conversations with their child about health and media.

Detailed Description: Parent-child pairs (N=300 pairs) will be recruited to participate in a randomized controlled trial. Parent consent and parent permission and youth assent will be sought. Participant pairs will be randomized into one of two study arms: intervention and active control. All participants will complete a web-based pre-test questionnaire. Youth and parents will then receive access to their randomly assigned resource. Approximately four weeks after completing the pre-test questionnaire, all participants will complete a web-based post-test questionnaire.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status: COMPLETED

Sex: All

Target Recruitment: 390

Inclusion Criteria

The adult must be the legal guardian of a child ages 9 to 12 years old.
The parent must be able and willing to receive email and text communication as part of the study.
The parent-child pair must have access to a smartphone with internet connection as the resource review will be completed online in a format that is best viewed on a smartphone.
The parent-child pair must be fluent in English as the study materials are written in English.
The parent must indicate that they will give the child participant privacy to complete the questionnaires.
Both the adult and child must agree to participate.

Exclusion Criteria

Only one parent-child pair per family may participate in the study. If the parent has more than one child aged 9 to 12 that is willing to participate, the parent will be prompted to select the child participant based on the following: if the parent's last name begins with a letter from A to M, select the youngest eligible child willing to participate or if the parent's last name begins with a letter from N to Z, select the oldest eligible child willing to participate.
In an effort to ensure diversity in parent gender and race/ethnicity, not all eligible pairs who are interested in participating will be enrolled in the study.

Study & Design

Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL

Study Design: PARALLEL

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change From Pretest in Child Report of Frequency of Parent-child Communication	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Child will respond to questions about the frequency with which their parent has talked with them about 12 topics related to prepubescent health on a Likert-type scale \[1 = Never; 2 = A little; 3 = A lot\]. Reponses on items are averaged, and higher scores indicate a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Parent Report of Frequency of Parent-child Communication	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Parent will respond to questions about the frequency with which they have talked with their child about 12 topics related to prepubescent health on a Likert-type scale \[1 = Never; 2 = A little; 3 = A lot\]. Reponses on items are averaged, and higher scores indicate a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Child Report of General Parent-child Communication Quality	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Child will indicate the extent to which they agree with nine statements about communication with their parent on a Likert-type scale \[1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Agree, 4 = Strongly agree\]. Reponses on items are averaged, and higher scores indicate a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Parent Report of General Parent-child Communication Quality	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Parent will indicate the extent to which they agree with nine statements about communication with their child on a Likert-type scale \[1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Agree, 4 = Strongly agree\]. Reponses on items are averaged, and higher scores indicate a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Child Report of Active Parental Media Mediation	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Child's perception of parent's use of active media mediation will be assessed using two items (e.g., "How often does your parent tell you what they see in media is different than real life?"). Participants will rate items on a 5-point Likert scale \[1 = never; 2 = almost never; 3 = sometimes; 4 = often; 5 = very often\]. Reponses on items are averaged, and higher scores indicate a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Parent Report of Active Parental Media Mediation	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Parents' use of active media mediation will be assessed using two items (e.g., "How often do you tell your child what they see in media is different than real life?"). Participants will rate items on a 5-point Likert scale \[1 = never; 2 = almost never; 3 = sometimes; 4 = often; 5 = very often\]. Reponses on items are averaged, and higher scores indicate a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Child Report of Parental Restrictive Media Mediation	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Child's perception of parent's use of restrictive media mediation will be assessed using one item (e.g., "How often does your parent limit the amount of your screen time (watching shows, going online, playing video games, or using social media)?"). Participants will rate items on a 5-point Likert scale \[1 = never; 2 = almost never; 3 = sometimes; 4 = often; 5 = very often\]. Higher scores indicate a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Parent Report of Parental Restrictive Media Mediation	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Parent's use of restrictive media mediation will be assessed using one item (e.g., "How often do you limit the amount of your child's screen time (watching shows, going online, playing video games, or using social media)?"). Participants will rate items on a 5-point Likert scale \[1 = never; 2 = almost never; 3 = sometimes; 4 = often; 5 = very often\]. Higher scores indicate a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Child Report of Awareness of Family Media Rules	Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Child will indicate on one item whether their family has rules about media use. Response options are "yes (1)," "no (0)," and "unsure (2)". Yes (1) indicates a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Parent Report of Awareness of Family Media Rules	Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Parent will indicate on one item whether their family has rules about media use. Response options are "yes (1)," "no (0)," and "unsure (2)". Yes (1) indicates a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Child Report of Acceptance of Gender Stereotypical Roles	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Child will respond to the 7 items to indicate their agreement with statements about gender using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = "disagree a lot" to 5 = "agree a lot"). Reponses on items are averaged, and higher scores indicate a less favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Child Report of Attitudes Toward Puberty	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Child will respond to one item (i.e., "I like the fact that I am becoming a woman/man") on a 4-point scale from 1 = disagree a lot to 4 = Agree a lot to assess participants' attitudes towards puberty. Higher scores indicate a more favorable outcome.
Change From Pretest in Child Report of Body-esteem	Pretest (at baseline) and Posttest (about four weeks after pretest questionnaire completion)	Child will respond to four statements about how they feel about their body (e.g., I'm proud of my body) on a 5-point scale \[1 = Never; 2 = Seldom; 3 = Sometimes; 4 = Often; 5 =Always\]. Reponses on items are averaged, and higher scores indicate a more favorable outcome.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method

Trial Locations

Locations (1): innovation Research and Training
🇺🇸
Durham, North Carolina, United States
innovation Research and Training
🇺🇸Durham, North Carolina, United States