Graduation Year

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Child and Family Studies

Major Professor

Andrew Samaha, Ph.D., BCBA

Committee Member

Sarah Bloom, Ph.D., BCBA

Committee Member

Raymond Miltenberger, Ph.D., BCBA

Keywords

telehealth, parent training, satisfaction, preference, effectiveness

Abstract

Telehealth provides an alternative delivery form of parent training that allows practitioners to disseminate information and feedback at a distance. Telehealth can be as effective as in-person training (Wacker et al., 2013a; Wacker et al., 2013b; Vismara et al., 2009). Despite most telehealth studies indicating high satisfaction, research on patient satisfaction using telehealth has depended mostly on survey instruments, which limits definitive conclusions and may not translate into actual use or selection (Whitten & Love, 2005). The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate a procedure for identifying parent preference of in-person or telehealth training modalities. Secondary purposes were to evaluate and compare correspondence between preference as measured in a choice format and a social validity measure, determine if the procedures can be used to detect differences in acquisition from each modality, and to evaluate effects of parent training on child appropriate and inappropriate behavior. The results support previous research that telehealth can be as effective as in-person training. Participants overall chose telehealth 40.93% of the time. Parent choice on any particular occasion was jointly influenced by other variables. Reported preference results at the end of the study differed from the choice data, which suggests satisfaction may differ from preference or actual use. Future studies could use this method to evaluate preference on a larger scale, or for different kinds of interventions and training modalities.

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