Replicating a randomized trial with video-feedback to promote positive parenting in parents of school-aged twins

In this randomized controlled trial, we investigated the effectiveness of the brief, home-based Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD) in parents of 257 school-aged twin pairs (N = 514 children, M_age = 7.92, SD = 0.66), replicating a previous study testing the effectiveness of the intervention in parents with preschool-aged twins (Euser et al., 2021). We conducted two pretests (1 year apart) and one posttest 1 month after the intervention. An age-adequate twin-adapted version of the VIPP-SD was used in primary caregivers (91% female). We examined the main effect of the intervention on observed parental sensitivity and sensitive discipline and on attitudes toward sensitivity and sensitive discipline. We also investigated whether parents who are more susceptible to the environment, as measured by their self- and partner-reported current temperamental reactivity, benefitted more from the intervention. In our sample with older children, the VIPP-SD did not significantly change observed parental sensitivity or sensitive discipline in the intervention group compared to the control group. The VIPP-SD did improve parents' attitude toward sensitivity, but not toward discipline. Intervention effects were not moderated by temperamental reactivity of the parents, providing no support for the differential susceptibility hypothesis. Future research might examine the differential susceptibility hypothesis in parents using stress-reactivity or genetic susceptibility markers instead of self-reported reactive temperament. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).