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- The Supporting Parent and Child Emotional well-being (SPACE) program is an 8-week online parenting program. The program includes weekly virtual social support groups, educational videos, and a comprehensive manual of handouts, worksheets, and activities to do with your children to promote positive mental health and parenting. Thirty-five mothers of children aged 3-4 years old participated and were randomized into the SPACE intervention or services as usual.
- Significant effects were observed between the two groups, and promising trends were observed to reduce parenting stress and harsh parenting. Parents in the program provided positive feedback across all aspects of the intervention.
- Some parents struggled to fully engage with the material for several reasons. Barriers to weekly engagement include child bedtime, fatigue/burnout, difficult child behaviour, medical reasons, and other obligations. Barriers to completing child activities include no time, fatigue, found it overwhelming, use of their own games, and forgetting.
- The results demonstrate the SPACE program is a feasible and acceptable intervention that holds promise to reduce parenting stress and harsh parenting. High engagement was demonstrated, and parents noted the value of the program while also noting areas of improvement.
- We have launched a parent preferences survey for additional information on what parents need and want form eHealth parenting survey, which will be integrated into future programming. We will then conduct a larger trial to see if significant effects are observed, including reductions in parenting stress and improvements in child behaviours.
