Promoting non-violent parenting through a virtual parenting program in Jamaica

Last registered on March 23, 2023

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Promoting non-violent parenting through a virtual parenting program in Jamaica
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008266
Initial registration date
October 11, 2021

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 15, 2021, 12:39 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
March 23, 2023, 1:15 PM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
The World Bank

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
National University of Singapore
PI Affiliation
UCLA
PI Affiliation
The World Bank
PI Affiliation
University of the West Indies, Jamaica and Bangor University, UK

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2021-04-01
End date
2022-09-30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Approximately 75 percent of children aged 2 to 4 worldwide - close to 300 million - are regularly subjected to violent discipline (physical punishment and/or psychological aggression) by parents and/or caregivers at home (UNICEF, 2017). While parenting styles and decisions are crucial in driving human capital accumulation, violence against children is often rationalized as necessary or inevitable. The evidence about the effectiveness of violence prevention parenting programs is scarce. Moreover, the effects of shifting the delivery of a parenting program from an in-person to a digital format are scarce and ambiguous. Results from a global systematic review show that high-quality parenting programs at scale are needed globally.

This research project aims to measure the impact of a virtual intervention (IRIE Homes) that provides caregivers access to support and guidance by specialists regarding positive parenting skills. By conducting a randomized control trial with approximately 1,200 caregivers in Jamaica, we will measure the causal impacts of this intervention on caregiver attitudes to violence against children, child maltreatment or abuse, child emotional and conduct problems, and caregivers’ mental health.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Dinarte, Lelys et al. 2023. "Promoting non-violent parenting through a virtual parenting program in Jamaica." AEA RCT Registry. March 23. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8266-1.2
Sponsors & Partners

Partner

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention involves training parents of children aged 2 to 6 years in child behavior management strategies and child-led play using a virtual adaptation of the Irie Homes Toolbox.

The intervention includes content relating to four key concepts: 1) building positive relationships between parent and child (e.g. praise, child-led play, involving the child in everyday activities), 2) preventing misbehavior (e.g. understanding why children misbehave, giving children independence, and autonomy, giving clear instructions, setting rules and expectations, modeling appropriate behavior), 3) managing misbehavior (e.g. redirecting children, withdrawing attention, setting limits, giving appropriate consequences) and 4) emotional self-regulation and stress reduction techniques.

The intervention is delivered over a 10-week period through three main components:
1) Three SMS messages per week relating to content from the Irie Homes Toolbox
2) Access to an App consisting of videos of parents utilizing the strategies with their children with new content uploaded each week for 10 weeks
3) Weekly 1-hour virtual group parenting sessions in small groups of eight parents with an officer from the Early Childhood Commission, Jamaica.

The control group receive three SMS messages per week with content relating Covid-19.
Intervention (Hidden)
The intervention involves training parents of children aged 2 to 6 years in child behavior management strategies and child-led play using a virtual adaptation of the Irie Homes Toolbox.

The intervention includes content relating to four key concepts: 1) building positive relationships between parent and child (e.g. praise, child-led play, involving the child in everyday activities), 2) preventing misbehavior (e.g. understanding why children misbehave, giving children independence, and autonomy, giving clear instructions, setting rules and expectations, modeling appropriate behavior), 3) managing misbehavior (e.g. redirecting children, withdrawing attention, setting limits, giving appropriate consequences) and 4) emotional self-regulation and stress reduction techniques.

The intervention is delivered over a 10-week period through three main components:
1) Three SMS messages per week relating to content from the Irie Homes Toolbox
2) Access to an App consisting of videos of parents utilizing the strategies with their children with new content uploaded each week for 10 weeks
3) Weekly 1-hour virtual group parenting sessions in small groups of eight parents with an officer from the Early Childhood Commission, Jamaica.

The control group receive three SMS messages per week with content relating Covid-19.
Intervention Start Date
2021-09-20
Intervention End Date
2021-11-26

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Attitudes to violence
Parents’ use of violence against their child
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
- Attitudes to violence: five agree/disagree questions.
- Parents’ use of violence against their child: number of days in the past week that the parent used violence against their child across five discipline questions (from UNICEF MICS).

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Caregiver well-being
Child behavior difficulties
Mechanisms: Caregiver knowledge, support networks, self-efficacy
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
- Caregiver well-being: depression (from PHQ-2), sleep, and anxiety (from GAD-2); each question answered on a 0-3 scale.
- Child behavior difficulties: ten questions on strengths and difficulties (five on emotional subscale and five on conduct); each question answered on a 0-2 scale.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Sampling:
There were two eligibility criteria for recruitment of caregivers into the study: (1) the individual should be the father, mother, or main caregiver of a child between 2-6 years of age (inclusive), and (2) the individual should have access to a smartphone or tablet that allows him/her to connect to the internet.

Caregivers were recruited via three channels: (1) SMS messages to the universe of mobile subscribers of Digicel Jamaica (more than 2.6 million SMS messages were sent across all Jamaican parishes), (2) emails sent to principals of preschools by the Early Childhood Commission for dissemination to parents, and (3) social media banners on the Jamaican Loop News website. Each mode of recruitment had a unique link to the recruitment eligibility checklist survey.

Randomization:

1,113 recruited caregivers successfully completed the baseline survey. We randomized the caregivers into two experimental arms: treatment and control. This gave a final study sample of 557 caregivers in the treatment group and 556 caregivers in the control group.

Randomization was stratified by four strata – the cross between the gender of the caregiver ((1) male or (2) female) and the mode of recruitment into the study ((1) SMS campaign or (2) Early Childhood Commission and Principal referral or social media campaign). Few caregivers were recruited through the principal and social media channels, and so we pooled these two modes in the stratification exercise. Stratified randomization by gender will allow us to study heterogeneity in intervention impacts by the gender of the caregiver. Details on the intervention that the treatment group receives are provided in the intervention section. Caregivers in the control group receive three SMS messages per week with content relating Covid-19.
Experimental Design Details
Sampling:
There were two eligibility criteria for recruitment of caregivers into the study: (1) the individual should be the father, mother, or main caregiver of a child between 2-6 years of age (inclusive), and (2) the individual should have access to a smartphone or tablet that allows him/her to connect to the internet.

Caregivers were recruited via three channels: (1) SMS messages to the universe of mobile subscribers of Digicel Jamaica (more than 2.6 million SMS messages were sent across all Jamaican parishes), (2) emails sent to principals of preschools by the Early Childhood Commission for dissemination to parents, and (3) social media banners on the Jamaican Loop News website. Each mode of recruitment had a unique link to the recruitment eligibility checklist survey.

Randomization:

1,113 recruited caregivers successfully completed the baseline survey. We randomized the caregivers into two experimental arms: treatment and control. This gave a final study sample of 557 caregivers in the treatment group and 556 caregivers in the control group.

Randomization was stratified by four strata – the cross between the gender of the caregiver ((1) male or (2) female) and the mode of recruitment into the study ((1) SMS campaign or (2) Early Childhood Commission and Principal referral or social media campaign). Few caregivers were recruited through the principal and social media channels, and so we pooled these two modes in the stratification exercise. Stratified randomization by gender will allow us to study heterogeneity in intervention impacts by the gender of the caregiver. Details on the intervention that the treatment group receives are provided in the intervention section. Caregivers in the control group receive three SMS messages per week with content relating Covid-19.
Randomization Method
Randomization was done in Stata using the randtreat command. Randomization was stratified by four strata – the cross between the gender of the caregiver ((1) male or (2) female) and the mode of recruitment into the study ((1) SMS campaign or (2) Principal referral or social media campaign).
Randomization Unit
Caregiver-level randomization
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1,113 caregivers
Sample size: planned number of observations
1,113 caregivers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
557 caregivers in the treatment group and 556 caregivers in the control group.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
MDE = 0.18 (18 percentage points) assuming alpha = 0.05, power = 80%, correlation between baseline and endline (ANCOVA model) = 0.25, attrition between baseline and endline = 20%.
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of the West Indies, Mona Campus Research Ethics Committee
IRB Approval Date
2021-06-08
IRB Approval Number
CREC-MN.86, 20/21

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials