Dataset Information

Using WhatsApp support groups to promote responsive caregiving, caregiver mental health and child development in the COVID-19 era: A randomised controlled trial of a fully digital parenting intervention.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Digital interventions hold important potential for supporting parents when face-to-face interventions are unavailable. We assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of a digital parenting intervention in Zambia and Tanzania.

Methods

Using a randomised controlled trial, we evaluated the Sharing Stories digital parenting intervention for caregivers of children aged 9-32 months with access to a smartphone in their household. Caregivers were stratified based on child age and randomly assigned to the intervention or waitlist control arm. The intervention was delivered via facilitated WhatsApp groups over 6 weeks to promote caregiver wellbeing and responsive caregiving through shared reading activities. Primary outcomes were caregiver-reported responsive caregiving, child language and socio-emotional development. Secondary outcomes were caregiver mental health and parental stress. Masked assessors conducted assessments at baseline and immediate follow-up.

Results

Between October 2020 and March 2021, we randomly assigned 494 caregiver-child dyads to the intervention (n = 248) or waitlist control (n = 246) arm. Caregivers in the intervention group reported more responsive caregiving (OR = 2.55, 95% CI: 1.15-5.66, p = 0.02), time reading or looking at books (β = 0.45, p = 0.04) and telling stories (β = 0.72, p = 0.002). Intervention caregivers reported significantly lower symptoms of depression (β = -0.64, p = 0.05) and anxiety (β = -0.65, p = 0.02). Child development and parental stress did not differ significantly between groups.

Conclusions

Digital parenting interventions using WhatsApp can effectively promote responsive caregiving and caregiver mental health in low-resource settings, with great potential for scalability.

Trial registration

ISRCTN database, ISRCTN77689525.

SUBMITTER: Skeen S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10624105 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Using WhatsApp support groups to promote responsive caregiving, caregiver mental health and child development in the COVID-19 era: A randomised controlled trial of a fully digital parenting intervention.

Skeen Sarah S Marlow Marguerite M du Toit Stefani S Melendez-Torres G J GJ Mudekunye Lynette L Mapalala Edwick E Ngoma Kelvin K Ntanda Byamukama Michael BM Maketha Moroesi M Grieve Caitlin C Hartmann Laura L Gordon Sarah S Tomlinson Mark M

Digital health 20230101

<h4>Objective</h4>Digital interventions hold important potential for supporting parents when face-to-face interventions are unavailable. We assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of a digital parenting intervention in Zambia and Tanzania.<h4>Methods</h4>Using a randomised controlled trial, we evaluated the Sharing Stories digital parenting intervention for caregivers of children aged 9-32 months with access to a smartphone in their household. Caregivers were stratified based on child age and ...[more]

PMID: 37928327

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Project description:BackgroundResponsive caregiving, or interactions in which caregivers give appropriate responses to a child's signals, is linked to improved psychosocial, cognitive and physical outcomes in children. However, much remains unknown about how responsive caregiving affects child development across cultural and socioeconomic contexts. The purpose of this study is to examine predictors of maternal responsive caregiving and investigate how these interactions are associated with children's development.MethodsData for the current analyses came from a longitudinal study designed to follow mothers from the third trimester through the first three years of the child's life. To assess responsive caregiving, the Observation of Mother-Child Interaction (OMCI) measure was used to examine maternal and child behaviors during a 5-min picture book activity at 24 months. Outcomes included child height-for-age z-score and child socioemotional development, using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Socioemotional (ASQ-SE) in which lower scores demonstrated better development. Using mean comparisons, the effects of baseline sociodemographic factors and maternal depression on responsive caregiving were tested. Analyses utilized hierarchical linear regressions to examine cross-sectional associations between responsive caregiving and child development outcomes at 24 months. Additional analyses controlled for the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME), a common measure in low-income contexts of caregiving, to assess whether OMCI was uniquely predictive of child outcomes.ResultsHigher maternal education attainment, lower number of children, greater socioeconomic assets, and lack of maternal depression were associated with higher levels of observed responsive caregiving behaviors. Higher total OMCI scores were associated with positive child socioemotional outcomes in adjusted models (β: -0.84, 95% CI [- 1.40, - 0.29]). The finding was statistically significant, even after controlling for HOME score (β: -0.83, 95% CI [- 1.38, - 0.27]). There was no association between OMCI scores and child linear growth.ConclusionsResponsive caregiving is linked to positive child socioemotional development in rural Pakistan. Our findings suggest that incorporating responsive caregiving into child health interventions in LMIC may have valuable impacts on child socioemotional development. The OMCI may be useful in identifying important pathways for change to responsive caregiving behaviors and may be of service for future interventions that optimize child development through responsive caregiving.Trial registrationNCT02111915 (09/18/2015); NCT02658994 (01/22/2016). Trials were prospectively registered.

Dataset Information

Using WhatsApp support groups to promote responsive caregiving, caregiver mental health and child development in the COVID-19 era: A randomised controlled trial of a fully digital parenting intervention.

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Trial registration

Publications

Using WhatsApp support groups to promote responsive caregiving, caregiver mental health and child development in the COVID-19 era: A randomised controlled trial of a fully digital parenting intervention.

Similar Datasets

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