Promoting family well-being at scale: Optimising and re-designing a digital parenting programme for reducing violence against children in lmics using the 6squid framework
Klapow M., Zinser P., Lachman J., Facciola C., Han Q., Ambrosio M., Calderon F., Brukwe K., Sheil R., Van Winden Y., Combs S., Mamauag B., Jennel R., Habacon C., Alampay LP., Mendez SE., Juhari RB., Schafer M., Clements L., Stern D.
Background and Objective: In response to the increased levels of emotional and physical violence against children due to the covid-19 pandemic and existing barriers to taking parenting programs to scale in lmics, parenting for lifelong health (plh) adapted its parenting programmes into a self-guided chatbot, parenttext. Initial acceptability and engagement with parenttext was tested in multiple pilot studies with results indicating that engagement was a significant barrier to the impact and effectiveness of the digital intervention. Using pilot data, this presentation describes the process of re-designing the intervention to increase engagement and retention. Methods: Mixed methods pilot studies were conducted in jamaica, malaysia, and the philippines. Quantitative data from jamaica (n = 1,114), malaysia (n = 82), and the philippines (n = 97) was analysed descriptively, examining average length of participation, number of modules completed, and interaction rates with different message types. Qualitative interviews with parenttext participants from philippines and malaysia (n = 9), and implementers in jamaica and malaysia were conducted and thematic analysis was performed. After data collection, a working group conducted workshops to re-design the intervention using the 6squid/mrc framework. Results: Quantitative analysis showed an average length in the programme of 5 days before disengaging regardless of the percentage of the intervention completed. The working group identified four main areas for re-design: 1) adding personalisation features, 2) introducing mechanisms to trigger reengagement within the intervention, 3) removing structural features contributing to disengagement, and 4) ease of use given a lack of in-person technical support. A new structure for parenttext was created along with a set of recommendations to address limitations of the current programme. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate a pragmatic approach for improving digital violence-reduction interventions in lmics and also represent the first use of the 6squid framework for designing a digital programme for family wellbeing.