Dados do Trabalho

Título

“WEBPAIS”: THE EFFECTS OF A VIRTUAL PARENT INTERVENTION PROGRAM DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Introdução

Parenting intervention has been associated with improvements in parents' practices and family wellbeing. Because of the pandemic situation, evidence of virtual modality has been more required.

Objetivo

This study investigated the effects of a virtual parenting counseling program in Brazilian’s parents' mental health and parental practices.

Método

The intervention, named WebPais, is a 6-session program with 1 hour and half synchronous virtual group meetings. The program includes psychoeducation, home practices, discussion about parent expectation about children’s academic performance during pandemic crisis; positive behavior management; emotions and cognitive education. Parents were recruited using social media. The population was 33 mothers, 2 aunts and 2 fathers who attended at least 50% of the intervention. To measure families’ socioeconomic status (SES) was used the Brazilian Economic Classification Criterion. Parents’ mental health symptoms (anxiety, stress, and depression) were assessed using the DASS-21 questionnaire and a parent’s style questionnaire (IEP – Portuguese version). The participants were divided in 08 groups according to the child's age. The pre and post scores were analyzed with the Wilcoxon test using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). No differences were found between groups. The groups’ results were analyzed together.

Resultados

There were 19 children with 06-08 years old (04 groups) and 18 children with 09-11 years (04 groups). Most of the children were boys (65.8%) and studied in private schools (78.9%) (main=8.42 years, standard deviation (SD)=1.79). Parents' ages were 40.73 years (SD=6.19). Most of the families were from the Minas Gerais state (60.52%), they were classified in the highest SES category (B1=39.47%) and they had completed higher education (71.1%). There was found a statistically significant decrease in parents’ anxiety (Z=-3.27; p<0.05), stress (Z=-3.66; p<0.05) and depression (Z=-2.72; p<0.05) scores after intervention. Moreover, improvements were identified in parent styles total score, but the differences were not statically significant (Z=-0.79; p>0.05).

Conclusão

Therefore, the WebPais program showed effects in improving parents’ mental health. The IEP results could be explained because of population characteristics and low frequency of negative parental practices. These results reveal the importance of parent interventions to improve the mental health of caregivers, especially in the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Palavras-chave

Parent training , Cognitive-behavioral therapy, Health promotion.