title: A pilot effectiveness study of the Enhancing Parenting Skills (EPaS) 2014 programme for parents of children with behaviour problems: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Enhancing Parenting Skills (EPaS) 2014 programme is a home-based, health visitor-delivered parenting support programme for parents of children with identified behaviour problems. This trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the EPaS 2014 programme compared to a waiting-list treatment as usual control group.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a pragmatic, multicentre randomised controlled trial. Sixty health visitors will each be asked to identify two families that have a child scoring above the clinical cut-off for behaviour problems using the Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory (ECBI). Families recruited to the trial will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio into an intervention or waiting-list control group. Randomisation will occur within health visitor to ensure that each health visitor has one intervention family and one control family. The primary outcome is change in child behaviour problems as measured by the parent-reported ECBI. Secondary outcomes include other measures of child behaviour, parent behaviour, and parental depression as measured by parent-reports and an independent observation of parent and child behaviour. Follow-up measures will be collected 6-months after the collection of baseline measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first rigorous evaluation of the EPaS 2014 programme. The trial will provide important information on the effectiveness of a one-to-one home-based intervention, delivered by health visitors, for pre-school children with behaviour problems. It will also examine potential mediating (improved parent behaviour and/or improved parental depression) and moderating (single parent, teenage parent, poverty, low education level) factors.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN06867279 (18 June 2014).
authors.affiliation: Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention, Nantlle Building, Normal Site, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2PZ, UK. margiad.williams@bangor.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Margiad Elen
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Centre for Evidence Based Early Intervention, Nantlle Building, Normal Site, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2PZ, UK. j.hutchings@bangor.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Judy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hutchings
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003150:Community Health Workers; D004505:Education, Nonprofessional / Q000379:methods*; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D000066553:Problem Behavior; D012107:Research Design; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014852:Wales