Engaging parents in preventive programs for adolescent mental health: A socio-ecological framework

Preventive parenting programs have been demonstrated to decrease the risk of adolescent mental health problems. Despite this, recruitment and engagement rates in these programs are low, which could lead to an underreporting of the effectiveness of these programs and parents not adequately developing the key skills required to prevent mental health problems in their adolescent. We propose a framework for understanding parental initial engagement using a socio-ecological lens, by considering a variety of factors that apply across several levels: intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy. Implications of this conceptual framework and future directions for research and practice are then discussed.