Short-Term Effects on Parenting and Adolescent Well-Being of a Personalized Digital Parenting Intervention. A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: To counter increasing youth mental health problems, it has been suggested to invest in broadly accessible parenting programs. To date, few online parenting programs exist and the majority provide universal rather than personalized advice. This preregistered randomized controlled trial tested a novel digital parenting intervention, composed of self-monitoring of parenting, a data-driven parenting report, and 6 weeks of online parenting tips to stimulate need-supportive parenting.Methods: This preregistered study compared post-intervention parenting (proximal outcome) and adolescent affective well-being (distal outcome) of 321 families in a control condition (100 daily diaries), with 225 families in an intervention group who additionally received a feedback report and add-on parenting tips from day 50 onwards. The report and tips were either universal (n = 107) or personalized (n = 110). This trial was registered at the CCMO: NL-009451 on 19-02-2025 [https://www.onderzoekmetmensen.nl/en/trial/57487]Results: Throughout the study, parents became less need-supportive, but adolescents experienced their parents as more need-supportive. Both parents and adolescents observed decreased overparenting over time. Parents in the control group reported becoming less autonomy supportive and warm (pre-post intervention) which was not found in the intervention groups. Adolescents in the universal intervention group perceived an increase in structure over time and an increase in negative affect (mainly irritability). No significant group differences were detected however (p’s > .06). Hence, an additional 6 weeks of parenting tips and a feedback report (our intervention) did not outperform the impact of 100 days of self-monitoring.Conclusions: Digital self-monitoring of parenting, combined with data-driven feedback and online parenting tips, seems to make parents more critical of their own parenting, but leaves adolescents more satisfied with the need-supportiveness of their parents. Moreover, this online parenting intervention, designed to target need-supportiveness, might counter harmful overparenting practices.