The issue: behaviour problems (defiance, refusal to comply with instructions, rudeness, destructiveness and aggression) are the commonest mental health problem amongst primary school age children, affecting fully 5% of them. Untreated, they have very poor outcomes in later life, with a high incidence of drug misuse, domestic violence, criminality, failure to get any examination passes on leaving school, and unemployment.

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The way parents bring up their children is a major determinant of whether or not they have behaviour problems. Inconsistent, harsh parenting, combined with lack of involvement with the child and low praise and encouragement are strongly implicated. 

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The problem with current treatment approaches: face-to-face parenting programmes, usually run in groups, have been shown to be very effective in reducing behaviour problems in children. Parents change their parenting style and the child gets happier and less disruptive. Our own group has done several randomised controlled trials proving this. However, they have a number of disadvantages:

1. they are expensive to run, costing around £2000 per child.

2. parents have to come in to a clinic or community centre at a fixed time during the day, when they might have work or other commitments such as childcare.

3. if parents miss a session, they cannot catch up.

4. There is often quite a lot of stigma and shame associated with having a difficult, naughty child.

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The advantages of online programmes. To follow the lettering of the points above:

1. they are much cheaper, costing around £75 unsupported, or if they are offered video support by a clinician at a time that suits them, they might cost £300-£400. Therefore the NHS or a charity can treat five times as many cases compared to face-to-face therapy.

2. Parents can view the online course at a time to suit them, for example in the evenings when the children have gone to bed, or at a weekend.

3. their own pace, catching up if they’ve missed a session, or indeed going ahead more quickly if it suits them.

4. it is private to themselves and they don’t have to feel shame in front of other parents.

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Limitations of existing online programmes the main ones are out of date and also unappealing to a British audience, with Australian or American accents and backgrounds. They are not visually pleasing or especially popular with parents

Findings from the grant this grant enabled a beta version of a British parenting program called  Parenting Matters to be completely updated with modern graphics and attractive panels that parents can choose according to what their issue is.

 

New videos were recorded of a variety of British families of differing backgrounds in British homes, demonstrating the “right” and “wrong” way to behaved all children. Feedback from over 200 parents and 150 professionals was very positive, with average scores for interesting being 8.1/10, useful 7.9/10, fun 8.2/10. Narrative feedback from parents is how engaging the programme is, and a Randomised Controlled Trial to evaluate its effectiveness is being conducted

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