Conclusions
ARC, Maudsley, anxiety
POSITIVE
This was the first RCT of a parenting support app designed specifically to support parents in the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic and one of the few examples of a trial within a cohort in our field. It used a rigorous design in a large sample and collected data on a range of outcomes over a 2-month period. The SPARKLE trial was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council: Grant ES/V016393/1 from the, UK. Co-SPACE was funded by grants from UKRI (2004CQ002/BS3) and the Westminster Foundation. The animations used in the Parenting Boosters were produced through funding by The Maudsley Charity and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. KG and ESBs contributions represent, respectively, independent research part funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South London (NIHR ARC South London) at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. CC receives funding from the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Oxford and Thames Valley at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. PW receives funding through a NIHR Development and Skills Enhancement award. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.We are grateful to all the families who were involved in the study. Thanks also go to the parents involved in our parent advisory panels and the SPARKLE Trial Steering Committee who provided guidance and advice throughout the study. We would like to thank other members of the Co-SPACE study team for their assistance with data collection: Adrienne Shum, Amy McCall, Dr Samantha Pearcey, Dr Jasmine Raw and Dr Simona Skripkauskaite. We would like to acknowledge parent moderators (Brigid Bose, Samira Elzaki, Sarah Inkpen, Emelia Kuagbela, Camille Le Boulba and Jessica Miranda) who facilitated the parent-to-parent support as part of the Parent Exchange. Thanks also go to Jo Nicoll and Claire Groarke from the Empowering Parents, Empowering Communities Team at the Centre for Parent and Child Support for providing clinical guidance to the parent moderators. We would also like to thank our experts who gave up their time to answer questions submitted by our SPARKLE parent participants (Chloe Chessell, Professor Cathy Creswell, Professor Crispin Day, Dr Rafael González, Professor Alice Gregory, Dr Victoria Hallett, Professor Katherine Mansell, Dr Melernie Meheux, Dr Lauren Peile, Professor Paul Ramchandani, Professor Stephen Scott, Professor Emily Simonoff, Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Dr Gauri Verma, Dr Matthew Woolger and Jezima Zahir). We are thankful to our design partner TOAD for their work in producing Parent Positive in such a short time frame, in particular Henry Waterfall-Allen, and the well-known UK television and film personalities who, as parents, narrated the animations (Olivia Colman, Sharon Horgan, Danny Dyer, Rob Brydon, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Holly Willoughby, Romesh Ranganathan and Shappi Khorsandi).Conflicts of Interest: CC receives royalties from the sale of books for parents and clinicians on managing child anxiety problems from LittleBrown and Guilford Press. CD is the lead developer and has a nonfinancial interest in a number of parenting programs including Empowering Parents Empowering Communities, Helping Families Programme, Family Partnership Model, and BabyCHAT. EJSSB was involved in the development of the New Forest Parent Programme, Families Under Pressure and Parent Positive. Receiving royalties for a book on the former. PW receives royalties from the sale of books for parents on helping their children overcome common psychological and emotional problems from LittleBrown. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest.Outcome analysis using complier average causal effect, economic analysis, and CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) checklist.CONSORT-EHEALTH (V 1.6.1) checklist.