From break-up to show-up: a randomized controlled trial study examining the effects of a digital intervention on school attendance among children in divorced families

Vollständiger Abstract

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Abstract Background Parental divorce increases the risk of school attendance problems (SAPs). Despite this well-established risk, no prior intervention has targeted school attendance as a primary outcome in post-divorce families. Methods This randomized controlled trial evaluated SES NXT, a brief, fully digital, age-tailored intervention for youth aged 3–17 experiencing parental divorce. In total, 467 families (649 school-age youth aged 6–17) were randomized to SES NXT or a waitlist (WL) control, with assessments at baseline (T1), 4 weeks (T2), and 12 weeks (T3). Results Across the 12-week period, youth in the intervention group missed approximately half as many school days as controls (3.4 vs. 6.6 days) and had fewer partial absences (6.1 vs. 11.6 instances), corresponding to reductions of approximately 49% and 47%, respectively. Significant Group × Time effects indicated that these differences emerged progressively across the study period. At T3, significantly fewer youth in the intervention group (15.9%) met the SAP threshold (> 10% absence) compared to the control group (55.7%). Youth in the intervention group also reported significantly greater ease of going to and staying at school (Cohen’s d = 0.79). Conclusions A brief, scalable, low-threshold digital intervention can meaningfully reduce school absence and SAP prevalence among youth in post-divorce families. Clinical trial number ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT05760820, registered 3 March 2023. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05760820 .