Exploring Parental Intentions to Engage In A Parent-Administered Internet Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Program

More than 6% of Canadian children experience anxiety at a severity which warrants a diagnosis. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for childhood anxiety but it can be difficult for parents to access due to factors such as cost and geographical obstacles. Parents have successfully and effectively implemented CBT to their children in the past, and we wanted to know if parents were interested in fusing parent-administered CBT with the Internet to overcome accessibility issues. The objective of this study was to investigate parents’ interest in assuming the role of laytherapist in online therapy and the factors associated with this interest, using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Among 164 parents, nearly 75% said they were interested in participating. Statistically significant and positive associations were found between interest and parent variables (i.e., parent confidence, stress, Internet proficiency), demographic variables (i.e., parent education level), and TPB variables (i.e., attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control (PBC)). Regression analyses showed that parent and demographic variables accounted for 12.5% of the variance in parent interest. In the final model, two components of the TPB—attitudes and PBC—and one parent variable—parent confidence—were predictive, accounting for an extra 32% of variance in parent interest. These findings indicate that many families would adopt this therapy, which is a timely discovery given the current global pandemic. Recommendations to boost parent interest include a) inducing positive attitudes toward ICBT, b) assuring parents that many barriers are removed due to nature of ICBT, and c) increasing parent confidence in assuming role of ‘lay-therapist.’ Future directions and limitations are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Clinical Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• DeLucry, Kailey Jayne

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Loutzenhiser, Lynn

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Wright, Kristi
• Sharpe, Donald

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.82465/4231

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uregina.scholaris.ca:10294/14394