Understanding engagement in web-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy interventions for parental burnout: Usage, dose-response and user experiences

Abstract

Web-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) interventions have shown their capacity to improve mental health and well-being (Brown et al., 2016). Engagement in technology-aided interventions is considered to be linked to intervention outcomes (Mattila et al., 2016; Short et al., 2018). Engagement can be defined as a composite of various measures such as usage time, task completion, interaction activity and user experience. We investigated how engagement influences outcomes in guided web-based acceptance and commitment therapy interventions for parents whose children have chronic conditions. We present findings from two studies: the first study was conducted in Sweden in 2017 (10-week intervention; N=36; median usage time 2:37 hours), and the second in Finland in spring 2019. Results related to the dose-response relationship between usage and the changes in psychological measures will be discussed. User experience findings of the two interventions will be compared to illustrate design choices that may have an influence on the engagement.