The Relationship Between Symptom Change and Use of a Web-Based Self-Help Intervention for Parents of Children With Externalizing Behavior Disorders: Exploratory Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Web-based self-help (WASH) has been found to be effective in the treatment of child externalizing behavior disorders. However, research on the associations of caregivers' use of WASH and symptom changes of child externalizing behaviors is lacking. OBJECTIVE: This study examined the longitudinal and reciprocal associations between the use of WASH by caregivers of children with externalizing behavior disorders and their children's externalizing behavior symptoms. METHODS: Longitudinal data of 276 families from 2 intervention conditions of a randomized controlled trial (either unguided or supported by a therapist over the phone) were analyzed. Caregiver- and clinician-rated child externalizing behavior symptoms were assessed before (T1), in the middle (T2), and after the 6-month WASH intervention (T3). Additionally, 2 indicators of the caregivers' use of the WASH intervention were considered: number of log-ins (frequency) and the percentage of completed material (intensity). Associations of caregivers' use during early (T1-T2) and late (T2-T3) treatment with child externalizing behavior symptoms were analyzed using path analyses (structural equation modeling). RESULTS: Frequency and intensity of use were higher during the first 3 months than during the next 3 months of the intervention period. The number of log-ins at early treatment was significantly but weakly associated with caregiver-reported child externalizing behavior symptoms in the long term (T3). Moreover, caregiver-reported child externalizing severity at T2 predicted the number of log-ins in the late treatment. The results were not replicated when considering the percentage of completed material as a measure of use or when considering clinician ratings of child externalizing behavior symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide the first, albeit weak, evidence for longitudinal associations between caregivers' use of WASH and improvements in caregiver-rated child externalizing behavior symptoms. However, as the associations were rather weak and could not be replicated across different rater perspectives and operationalizations of use, further research is needed to better understand these relations and their interplay with other putative influence factors (eg, quality of the implementation of the interventions, changes in parenting behaviors). TRIAL REGISTRATION: German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00013456; https://www.drks.de/DRKS00013456. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.1186/s12888-020-2481-0.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.013 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".