Identifying Active Ingredients that Cause Change in Digital Parent Training Programs for Child Behavior Problems: A Qualitative Exploration

Digital parent training programs (DPTs) aimed at treating child behavior problems have shown efficacy in a number of trials, but less is known about the active ingredients parents find helpful while using DPTs. We analyzed data from users of self-guided DPTs within a randomized controlled trial setting: a standard program (DPT-STD) and an enhanced program (DPT-TP). Thematic analysis of interviews (n = 16) reveals that users of both programs endorsed the “content”, “content presentation”, “accessibility”, and “therapeutic context” as beneficial. However, only DPT-TP users identified the “therapeutic persuasiveness” as helpful, attributing this to features embedded exclusively in the enhanced program, including call-to-action reminders and assessment-based feedback. Findings were reinforced by the analysis of responses to open-ended questions from a larger sample of users (n = 31 DPT-STD users and n = 34 DPT-TP users). These findings underscore the importance of utilizing features that help parents make positive changes in their home.