A 4-Minute Video Improves Parents’ Instruction Delivery to Young Children: A Multiple-Baseline Investigation

Abstract

Researchers have noted the potential of very brief technology-based multimedia interventions to disseminate positive parenting practices in pediatric primary care. Such interventions are well-accepted and reported as useful, but no study has objectively assessed their effects on target parenting behaviors. To determine the effects of a 4-min video intervention on effective instruction delivery, a multiphase multiple-baseline across participants design was used to sequentially expose parent–child dyads (N = 3) to the following conditions: Baseline, Video Intervention, Video Intervention + Self-Feedback, Video Intervention + Self-Feedback + Researcher-Feedback. Parent-child dyads were directly observed and parent behavior was coded for effective instruction delivery. Each dyad showed improvement in effective instruction delivery in response to the intervention. For 2/3 dyads, feedback phases resulted in additive gains. The results demonstrate that in addition to being well-accepted and perceived as useful, ultra-brief multimedia interventions hold potential to alter specific parenting behaviors.