Prevention of child mental health problems in SouthEastern Europe (RISE)

Background

The prevalence of children experiencing mental health problems is high in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Parenting programs have shown to be effective in reducing child behavior problems and associated risk factors (e.g., harsh parenting, parental stress) in high-income countries. RISE will use the Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) programme to prevent child mental health disorders in LMIC and thus reduce the global burden of mental disorders.

Aims

The project aims at disseminating a parenting program for families with elevated child behavior problems in three LMIC in Southeastern Europe. The Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) program for parents of children aged 2 to 9 years will be adapted, optimized and tested in North Macedonia, Republic of Moldova and Romania.

Project plan

The study was informed by the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST) and the RE-AIM framework and was to be accomplished in three phases:

1. The Preparation Phase 1 aims at testing the feasibility of the program and the implementation and evaluation procedures in the three countries with 40 families per country.

2. In the Optimization Phase 2, different program components are tested in a factorial design to identify the most effective, cost-effective and scalable program in that context.

3. In the Evaluation Phase 3, the optimized program identified in Phase 2 will be tested in a randomized controlled trial across the three countries.

Impact

The RISE project demonstrated that the intervention, Parenting for Lifelong Health, could be delivered in a cost effective manner in vulnerable regions and could help to reduce the risk of violence against children. In addition, a number of PIs from the RISE project participated in the Guideline Development Group for WHO’s guidelines for parenting programmes.

Funding organisations

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