Examining engagement with and acceptability and usability of REAL Parenting: A brief online parent-based intervention to reduce alcohol use and consequences among high school students

• Published in: Addictive behaviors 2023-08, Vol.143, p.107673-107673, Article 107673
• Main Authors: Glenn, Shannon D., Turrisi, Robert, Hecht, Michael L., Russell, Michael A., Ray, Anne E.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Alcohol; Alcohol Drinking - prevention & control; Communication; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Parent-based intervention; Parenting; Prevention; Self Report; Students
• ISSN: 0306-4603; 1873-6327; 1873-6327
• DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107673

•With no financial incentive, about 75% of parents accessed the intervention.•Ratings of acceptability and usability were neutral to positive.•Mothers rated the intervention more positively than fathers.•Self-report but not analytic indicators of engagement were associated with outcomes. This study is a formative assessment of REAL Parenting (RP): a brief, digital intervention for parents of high school students that encourages parent-teen communication about alcohol and, in turn, aims to prevent teen alcohol use. The aims of this study were to describe engagement with, and acceptability and usability of RP; and to explore the relationship of these measures with each other and with short-term outcomes. Participants were 160 parents randomly assigned to the treatment group who received RP as part of a randomized pilot trial (Mage = 45.43[SD = 7.26], 59.3% female, 56% White, 19% Hispanic). App-based program analytics captured real-time engagement with RP. Parents completed self-report measures of acceptability, usability, perceived communication effectiveness, perceived self-efficacy to communicate, and frequency of communication post-intervention. Descriptive statistics were calculated to describe engagement, acceptability and usability, and zero-order correlations were calculated to examine associations between these and self-report variables. About 75% (n = 118) of parents accessed the intervention and two-thirds (n = 110) accessed at least one module. Self-report ratings of acceptability and usability were neutral to positive, and mothers liked RP more than fathers. Self-report, but not program analytic indicators were associated with short-term outcomes. Findings suggest that, with little incentive, most parents will access an app focused on parent-teen communication about alcohol. While parent feedback was positive, it also highlighted areas for improvement with app content and design. Correlations suggest that analytic metrics of engagement are useful to discern who is and is not using interventions, and self-report measures are important for understanding pathways by which interventions are associated with short-term outcomes.