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.

Introduction: 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 using algorithm-based behaviour analysis to identify causes of CB and provide individualized practical guidance to manage and prevent CB.

Methods: A total of 18 caregivers ( = 38.9 ± 5.0) of children with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (44%), intellectual and developmental disabilities (33%) or both (22%) aged 4-11 years ( = 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.

Results: We observed increases in parental stress in terms of conscious feelings of incompetence. However, we also saw improvements in parental stress experience due to CB and overreactive parenting, and descriptive improvements in CB intensity and caregiver mood.

Discussion: pioneers behaviour analysis in a digital and automated format, with participants reporting high acceptance. Pilot results highlight the potential of the app to positively influence child behaviour and caregiver mental health over a longer intervention period.

Registration: The study was registered at https://www.drks.de (ID = DRKS00029039) on May 31, 2022.