None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Early childhood is a joyful but often stressful time for parents--mealtimes can be battlefields, leaving the house can be an ordeal, and reasonable requests can result in meltdowns. Parents who regularly feel stressed are more likely to experience poor mental health, including feelings of failure and isolation. In turn, children raised in a stressful environment can have poorer emotional and behavioural development outcomes. Our research aims to investigate a distinctive style of early parenting known as the Respectful Approach and how it may improve stress and other health outcomes in parents and their young children. Originally designed for institutional care in Eastern Europe and introduced to the USA by Madga Gerber, it focuses on developing a cooperative relationship with the child. Parents are guided to treat their infants as capable and independent, with emphasis on sensitive observation and attention to cues. Our preliminary research on the Respectful Approach showed that our parent-child education workshops significantly lowered parents stress levels and increased their parenting confidence. Parents also better understood their children’s capabilities. Going forward, we want to discover whether the Respectful Approach also has benefits for children’s health - particularly stress, behaviour, growth, and development. We want to provide a preventative, evidence-based education program to empower parents to develop cooperative relationships with their young children. We hypothesise this will reduce stress in families and improve child health outcomes.
Interventions
INTERVENTION
In-person intervention (Arm 1)
Families will be asked to attend two sets of Respectful Approach parenting classes, held in a group setting (approximately 8-10 children with their primary carers/parents). The Respectful Approach is a preventative initiative, based on principles of the ‘Pikler Approach®’ originally developed by Hungarian paediatrician Dr Emmi Pikler and later established in the USA by infant specialist Magda Gerber.
Each set of classes will run once per week for eig
INTERVENTION In-person intervention (Arm 1) Families will be asked to attend two sets of Respectful Approach parenting classes, held in a group setting (approximately 8-10 children with their primary carers/parents). The Respectful Approach is a preventative initiative, based on principles of the ‘Pikler Approach®’ originally developed by Hungarian paediatrician Dr Emmi Pikler and later established in the USA by infant specialist Magda Gerber. Each set of classes will run once per week for eight weeks (for a total of 16 classes over the two sessions). Families will attend the first set of classes when their child is around four months of age and the second set of classes when their child is around twelve months of age. For the in-person classes, children will attend with their parents to provide ‘live’ opportunities for sensitive observation and interactions. Session attendance will be taken and parents in the intervention will be encouraged to complete and reflect on weekly challenges . These will be used to assess adherence to the Respectful Approach principles. Families will also be invited to engage in a private, researcher-supervised Facebook group for on-going peer support. Online intervention (Arm 2) Families will attend the classes covering the same content as the in-person group but over web video conference. For the online classes, families will be invited to submit a video of their child for discussion. All assessments will be the same as the in-person intervention. THE CLASSES The parent-child classes will be facilitated by qualified educators experienced in running classes and parent education, and also have completed additional specialist training in the Respectful Approach (RIE® Foundations: Theory and Observation). Each class will run for around 1 hour. Classes cover a different topic each week based on Respectful Approach principles of mutual trust, sensitive observation, quality caregiving (with a focus on mealtimes), a prepared environment, time for uninterrupted play and consistency. Participants will receive weekly handouts including educational information around the topic for discussion for that week. These handouts have been specifically designed for this study. INTERVENTION LOCATION - Arm 1: in-person sessions will be provided for free at an appropriate venue within the Perth Metropolitan region (e.g., community centre) - Arm 2: online classes will be held via video conferencing software (e.g., Microsoft Teams or Zoom)
Sponsors
Edith Cowan University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
3 Months to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
- Parents/carers with children aged around 4 months of age - Good understanding of spoken and written English - Access to the internet and device to engage in online content - Willing and able to attend at least six out of eight sessions per year for two years, in person or online, with child (no other siblings to attend the education class – parents who care for other children need to be able to arrange alterative care, or we will investigate options for onsite care) - For participants enrolled in the larger ORIGINS Project: likely to be still participating in the ORIGINS Project until at least the 3-year follow up
Exclusion criteria
Parents under 18 years of age
Outcome results
None listed