Healthy Start, Happy Start: Helping parents with children's behaviour
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Preventing enduring behavioural problems in young children through early psychological intervention: Healthy Start, Happy Start.
IRAS ID
160786
Contact name
Paul Ramchandani
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Imperial College London
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Behavioural problems affect 5-10% of children, and increase risk for deleterious outcomes throughout childhood and into adult life, including psychiatric disorders, antisocial behaviour, drug and alcohol misuse, educational failure and physical ill health. As well as these difficulties for young people and their families, large costs are incurred to society through the health, social care and criminal justice systems.
A key risk factor for the development of behaviour problems is quality of parental care, including low levels of sensitive parenting and greater use of harsh discipline. Interventions working to improve parenting have been found to reduce child behavioural problems. However, research has predominantly focused on older children, when behavioural problems are more established, and possibly harder to treat. Intervening early in children’s lives has the potential to be particularly effective in improving outcomes. Existing interventions have also focused predominantly on mothers, with few involving fathers or a second caregiver, despite accumulating evidence highlighting the benefits of father involvement.
The aim of this study is to trial and evaluate a brief early parenting intervention (Video-Feedback to Promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline; ViPP-SD) in 12-36 month-old children at risk of externalising behavioural problems. ViPP-SD has a strong focus on reinforcing positive parenting and is designed to improve parents’ sensitivity in interactions with their infants and improve their ability to manage their children’s behaviour. The intervention will be compared to a control condition in which parents receive treatment as usual from their health visitors or other NHS services. This home-based intervention will be delivered by experienced health workers to the primary caregiver, and a second parent if present.
The proposed research will be the first large randomised controlled trial to test whether an early video feedback intervention is a clinically and cost effective approach to reducing behavioural problems in at-risk young children.
REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/LO/2071
Date of REC Opinion
12 Dec 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion