title: Parental intentions to enroll children in a voluntary expanded newborn screening program.
abstract: Nearly all babies in the United States are tested at birth for rare, serious, and treatable disorders through mandatory state newborn screening (NBS). Recently, there have been calls for an expanded, voluntary model to facilitate early diagnosis and treatment of a wider range of disorders. We applied the reasoned action framework to examine parental intentions to participate in voluntary expanded screening.
  
  
  
  We recruited a national cohort of recent and expectant parents living in the U.S. who completed a self-administered online survey (N = 1001). Using a mixed-level fractional factorial experiment, we studied parental participation intentions and preferences for timing of consent, cost, consent format, and testing options.
  
  
  
  We conducted a hierarchical regression analysis assessing parental intentions to participate in voluntary expanded NBS. Attitudes, perceived normative influence, and perceived behavioral control explained substantial variance in intention, with perceived normative influence emerging as the strongest predictor. We found no evidence that the manipulated program features altered mean levels of intention, but timing of parental permission, cost, and permission format moderated the relative importance of reasoned action constructs on intention.
  
  
  
  Program design features may impact the psychological mechanisms underlying parental decision making for voluntary expanded screening. These results have important implications for parent education, outreach, and informed parental permission procedures.
authors.affiliation: Center for Communication Science, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States. Electronic address: rpaquin@rti.org.
authors.forename: Ryan S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Paquin
authors.affiliation: Center for P-12 Education, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States.
authors.forename: Holly L
authors.initials: HL
authors.lastname: Peay
authors.affiliation: Center for P-12 Education, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States.
authors.forename: Lisa M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Gehtland
authors.affiliation: Center for Communication Science, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States.
authors.forename: Megan A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.affiliation: Education and Workforce Development, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC, United States.
authors.forename: Donald B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Bailey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015997:Neonatal Screening / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D035141:Voluntary Programs
keywords: Expanded newborn screening; Informed decision; Intentions; Reasoned action; Theory of planned behavior; United States