Recruitment in an indicated prevention program for externalizing behavior - parental participation decisions.

Area of Science:

• Child Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Public Health

Background:

• Parental decisions to join prevention trials are influenced by internal and external factors.
• Barriers to participation are critical during the screening phase for identifying at-risk families.
• Detailed screening procedures and dropout analyses are often lacking in prevention research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze parent recruitment and retention in the Prevention Program for Externalizing Problem behavior (PEP).
• To identify differences between study participants and those who declined or dropped out.
• To determine predictors of dropout at various stages of the trial.

Main Methods:

• Examined retention rates at each study step.
• Compared characteristics of participants versus dropouts/decliners.
• Employed logistic regression to identify dropout predictors.

Main Results:

• Retention varied from 63.8% (pre-test) to 81.1% (high training participation).
• Dropouts often had children with lower parent-rated but higher teacher-rated symptom intensity.
• Low socioeconomic status predicted dropout at screening and for training intensity.

Conclusions:

• Families at higher risk for non-participation require targeted support.
• Implementing prevention programs in routine care necessitates addressing recruitment barriers.
• Proactive strategies are essential to enhance engagement in child prevention trials.