Marketing Therapy to Parents Concerned About Adolescent Substance Use: Association of Adolescent Problems and Parent Preferences for Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

• Published in: Professional psychology, research and practice research and practice, 2020-02, Vol.51 (1), p.68-76
• Main Authors: Helseth, Sarah A, Escobar, Katherine I, Clark, Melissa A, Spirito, Anthony, Becker, Sara J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent girls; Behavior modification; Costs and Cost Analysis; Drug Abuse; Drug Usage; Drug use; Female; Health Care Seeking Behavior; Health Care Utilization; Health promotion; Help seeking behavior; Human; Internalization; Internalizing disorders; Male; Marketing; Mental Health; Parents; Parents & parenting; Polls & surveys; Preferences; Psychologists; Substance abuse; Teenagers; Test Construction; Willingness to pay
• ISSN: 0735-7028; 1939-1323
• DOI: 10.1037/pro0000255

Parent-directed marketing strategies have great potential to promote the utilization of therapy by adolescents with or at risk of substance-related problems. The extent to which marketing strategies should be tailored to parents of adolescents with various presenting problems-such as substance use, mental health, and legal involvement-is unknown. The current study represents a secondary analysis of a direct-to-consumer marketing survey, which used a well-established framework called the Marketing Mix to solicit parent preferences about marketing across 3 dimensions: promotion (i.e., how parents prefer to receive information); place (i.e., where parents prefer to receive therapy); and price (i.e., how much parents are willing to pay and how far parents are willing to travel). Four hundred eleven parents of 12- to 19-year-old adolescents (51% girls, 82% non-Hispanic White) completed the survey and answered 5 questions spanning promotion, price, and place dimensions of the Marketing Mix. A subsample of 158 parents also reported on their actual therapy-seeking behavior, allowing us to report on both parents' ideal and actual experiences. We explored the extent to which parent preferences varied as a function of adolescent substance use, externalizing, internalizing, and legal problems. Bivariate analyses and multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine which of these variables were associated with parents' responses to specific survey items. Analyses confirmed that both parent preferences and parents' actual therapy-seeking behavior varied as a function of adolescent problems. Recommendations are offered for professional psychologists to use direct-to-consumer marketing strategies to connect with adolescents in need of services. Public Significance Statement We asked parents of teenagers when, where, how, and from whom they would prefer to learn about therapy options for their teen. Parent preferences were different if their teen had mental health or substance use problems. We suggest ways that therapists can use marketing to reach families with teens in need of therapy.