Is Signposting to Online Peer Support Helpful in Decreasing Loneliness in Parents of Children With Long-term Conditions and Disabilities?

Loneliness has been defined as an aversive subjective experience that occurs when a person's social network is lacking in either quality or quantity compared to their needs. A recent poll of 2000 parents found that more than half had experienced a problem with loneliness.

There is ample evidence that parental loneliness has negative consequences for both the parent and child. Loneliness has been associated with parental stress, with maternal loneliness being associated with dissatisfaction with life and the couple relationship and depressive symptoms, and found to be a predictor of chronic depression. Paternal loneliness has been shown to predict son's loneliness, and daughter's loneliness is predicted by maternal loneliness. Additionally, maternal loneliness has been found to predict social competence and fear of negative evaluation in adolescents.

Social capital, which has been defined as the creation of personal relationships and the benefits that come with them, has been found to be significantly inversely associated with loneliness in different populations, for example older adults and students.

A recent scoping review found that parents of children with long-term conditions or disabilities appear to be at increased risk of loneliness, but there has been little research looking directly at what might help to alleviate loneliness in this group. The review identified that peer support could be a potential key mechanism in reducing loneliness in parents.

With stretched mental health services for families in the UK, parents are often signposted to peer support groups for advice and support. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic many face-to-face peer support groups have been forced to close, with signposting options being limited to online peer support groups or forums.

The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of signposting parents of children with long-term conditions and disabilities to peer support groups in terms of alleviating loneliness (relative to a wait list control). A secondary aim is to identify the predictors of such change / any response to allocation to the peer support groups, including attendance of the peer support and changes in online and offline social capital. Whether signposting to online peer support has an impact on anxiety and depression will also be investigated.

Inclusion criteria

• participants will be required to have one or more child with long-term conditions or disabilities
• participants must consent to take part
• participants should be sufficiently fluent in English to enable participation in online peer support groups and forums as well as participation in the study.

Exclusion criteria

• participants must not be under 18 years of age.