Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Digital Mental Health
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2024.1462682

ProVIA-Kids -Outcomes of an Uncontrolled Study on Smartphone-Based Behaviour Analysis for Challenging Behaviour in Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities or Autism Spectrum Disorder

Provisionally accepted
Rinat Meerson Rinat Meerson 1Hanna Buchholz Hanna Buchholz 2Klaus Kammerer Klaus Kammerer 3Manuel Göster Manuel Göster 3Johannes Schobel Johannes Schobel 4Christoph Ratz Christoph Ratz 3Rüdiger Pryss Rüdiger Pryss 3Regina Taurines Regina Taurines 2Marcel Romanos Marcel Romanos 2Matthias Gamer Matthias Gamer 3Julia Geissler Julia Geissler 2*
  • 1 University of Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 2 University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
  • 3 Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany
  • 4 Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Ulm, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Challenging behaviour (CB) is a common issue among children with autism spectrum disorder or intellectual and developmental disability. Mental health applications are low-threshold cost-effective tools to address the lack of resources for caregivers. This pre-post study evaluated the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of the smartphone app ProVIA-Kids using algorithm-based behaviour analysis to identify causes of CB and provide individualized practical guidance to manage and prevent CB. A total of 18 caregivers (M = 38.9 ± 5.0) of children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (44%), intellectual and developmental disabilities (33%) or both (22%) aged 4 to 11 years (M = 7.6 ± 1.8) were included. Assessments were performed before and after an 8-week intervention period. The primary outcome was the change in parental stress. Caregiver stress experience due to CB was also rated daily via ecological momentary assessments within the app. Secondary outcomes included the intensity of the child’s CB, dysfunctional parenting, feelings of parental competency as well as caregivers’ mood (rated daily in the app) and feedback on the app collected via the Mobile Application Rating Scale. We observed increases in parental stress in terms of conscious feelings of competence. However, we also saw improvements in parental stress experience due to CB and overreactive parenting, and descriptive improvements in CB intensity and caregiver mood. ProVIA-Kids pioneers behaviour analysis in a digital and automated format, with participants reporting high acceptance. Pilot results highlight the potential of the ProVIA-Kids app to positively influence child behaviour and caregiver mental health over a longer intervention period. The study was registered at https://www.drks.de (ID=DRKS00029039) on May 31, 2022.

    Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, challenging behaviour, behaviour analysis, mental health application, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, parent training, Parental stress, intellectual and development disabilities

    Received: 10 Jul 2024; Accepted: 26 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Meerson, Buchholz, Kammerer, Göster, Schobel, Ratz, Pryss, Taurines, Romanos, Gamer and Geissler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Julia Geissler, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.