Pilot Randomised Controlled Trial of a Prototype Emotion Socialisation Parenting Program: An Ecological Momentary Intervention

Background: Despite evidence showing that parenting interventions reduce rates of child mental health problems, their reach and engagement remain low. Daily Growth is a digital parenting program designed to improve parent and child emotion regulation using an ecological momentary intervention (EMI) approach. Daily Growth sends twice-daily prompts and delivers 3-minute videos tailored to a recent parenting situation, offering two program types (Emotion Coaching; Active Play) to meet different parent preferences. EMI has been minimally tested with parenting programs. This pilot aimed to assess the feasibility and acceptability of the EMI design and a prototype of Daily Growth, offering the two programs via 10 of 90 planned videos. Methods: A pilot randomised controlled trial recruited 189 Australian parents of children aged 2-4 years, randomised to either intervention (n=94) or active control (n=95). Participants completed a 25-minute online survey at baseline and 2 weeks post intervention. In the intervening 2 weeks, participants received twice-daily 1-minute pre-EMI surveys via email. Participants who reported any parent or child negative affect or emotion dysregulation received a resource. Participants in the intervention condition were randomised in the moment to receive a 3-minute Emotion Coaching or Active Play video, while participants in the control condition received a link to a parenting website. Participants were sent a 1-minute post-EMI survey. For both conditions, parenting support was tailored to one of five pre-defined parenting situations. Results: 71% of participants were retained to 2 weeks post survey, and over two thirds completed at least half of the daily pre-EMI surveys. Despite technical issues, most participants reported Daily Growth as easy to use (67%) and were satisfied with Daily Growth (60%), would recommend it to other parents (79%), and would use the skills learned (69%).Conclusions: This pilot evaluated whether brief, tailored videos could engage parents in real time. Findings suggest the Daily Growth prototype was feasible and well received, supporting further implementation in a larger trial.