Advancing family wellbeing through a Massive Online Open Intervention: the LightBEAM program protocol for randomized...

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Parental Mental Health
• Digital Health Interventions

Background:

• Parental mental health issues in early childhood can negatively impact child development.
• Canadian families face significant barriers accessing timely mental health services.
• There is a need for accessible, low-barrier mental health supports for parents.

Purpose of the Study:

• To translate the established BEAM (Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health) program into a Massive Open Online Intervention (MOOI) called LightBEAM.
• To increase the accessibility, scalability, and reach of parenting and mental health support for Canadian families.
• To evaluate the efficacy of the LightBEAM intervention using a pilot waitlist control design.

Main Methods:

• Recruitment of Canadian families with children aged 1.5-8 years experiencing elevated parenting stress, anxiety, or depression.
• Intervention involves a 12-week app-based program with videos, a forum, and weekly exercises.
• Data analysis using Multilevel modeling and mediation models, with post-program focus groups for feasibility and acceptability.

Main Results:

• Pilot study to assess the efficacy of translating BEAM into LightBEAM.
• Evaluation of changes in parental mental health scores over 12 weeks and a 6-month follow-up.
• Exploration of program feasibility and acceptability through focus groups.

Conclusions:

• The translation of BEAM into LightBEAM, a national MOOI, offers potential for scalable intervention delivery.
• This initiative aims to improve access to timely mental health and parenting support for Canadian families.
• Results will inform future iterations and improvements of the LightBEAM program.