Feasibility, Development and Dissemination of a Father Focused Parenting Intervention, DadPlay

We report the feasibility of an mHealth intervention for fathers of young children, tested in real-world community settings, with a focus on four aspects of feasibility: demand, acceptability, implementation and limited efficacy. DadPlay was an intended for fathers who were raising young children with challenging behaviours. While programs targeting parenting skills are effective at reducing behavioural problems in early childhood, many parenting programs unintentionally work against father inclusion and fail to engage, retain or measure men's participation. We evaluated feasibility according to four components of feasibility: Demand, Acceptability, Implementation and Limited Efficacy. Participants were eligible for the intervention if they were fathers of a pre-school aged child. A service network was established as a reference group, which included family and child-focused non-government charities and organisations and preschools located across regional, rural and remote localities in Australia. Results for Demand showed we reached out to approximately 340 organisations: 57% agreed to disseminate information. 325 parents submitted an EOI, 108 completed enrolments, and 96 completed the program. For Acceptability, findings indicated that the message content and program features were very acceptable. For Implementation, our reach was vast, however efficiency appeared low, with exceptions. A low response rate limits our Efficacy findings, however, summary statistics showed that fathers’ confidence and relationship quality had increased. We demonstrated that DadPlay was acceptable and has the potential to support fathers of young children. To upscale and sustain such initiatives, we need to better collaborate and co-create with fathers, professionals and organisations.