A family-centered digital intervention for parents of at-risk middle-school students

This study examined the Family Check-Up Online (FCU-O), which combines app-based parenting support combined with telehealth coaching, to address parent and youth functioning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Research since the pandemic has highlighted long-term consequences for parents and youth (including emotional and behavioral difficulties along with long-term learning loss), as well as limitations to available supports. The FCU-O was designed to increase access and reach of such supports in order to promote effective parenting and improvements in youth emotional and behavioral functioning. The current randomized trial examined parent and youth outcomes at baseline, 3-month, and 6-month follow-up assessments among families randomly assigned to the FCU-O (N = 142) or a no-treatment control condition (N = 139). Receipt of FCU-O was associated with significant improvements in parenting skills (greater proactive parenting, limit setting, and warmth, as well as reductions in negative parenting) and perceptions of parenting (including parenting confidence and reduced parenting stress), although the pattern of results was complex with several effects (perceived stress, limit setting, negative parenting, and parenting competence) only observed in post hoc analyses of within-group changes. Significant direct effects of the FCU-O on youth emotional or behavioral problems were not observed, although indirect effects of the FCU-O on youth conduct problems were observed at 6 months, via improvements in parents' sense of competence at 3 months. Results offer further support for the FCU-O as an accessible intervention for families facing ongoing challenges, including those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.