Family Relations, Marriage, Mother-Child Relations, Parenting
Conditions
Brief summary
Mathematica was awarded a contract by ACF to conduct the evaluation of selected grantees offering Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Programs.This particular evaluation will focus on the University of Denver's MotherWise program, which offers relationship education and other supports to low-income women expecting a baby. The program has three core components: (1) 18 hours of core workshop sessions using the Within My Reach relationship education curriculum supplemented with content on mother-infant relationships; (2) case management services; and (3) optional relationship education workshops for couples. The evaluation will test the effect of this full package of services on mothers' relationship outcomes, as well as other outcomes related to child well-being, such as co-parenting and father involvement.
Detailed description
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), is conducting an evaluation of healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs. Mathematica was awarded a contract by ACF to conduct the evaluation of selected programs/grantees.This segment of the larger evaluation will focus on the University of Denver's MotherWise program. The Mother Wise program will offer relationship education and other supports to low-income women expecting a baby. The program will have three core components: (1) 18 hours of core workshop sessions using the Within My Reach relationship education curriculum supplemented with content on mother-infant relationships; (2) case management services; and (3) optional relationship education workshops for couples. The evaluation will test the effect of this full package of services on mothers' relationship outcomes, as well as other outcomes related to child well-being, such as co-parenting and father involvement. If feasible, the evaluation will also examine some measures available through hospital records, such as birth weight. Mother Wise will enroll women who are expecting a baby and those who have had a baby within the past month. Control group members will not be eligible for Mother Wise but will be eligible for other services available in the community. To document the outcomes of study participants, survey data will be collected at two time points: (1) a baseline survey administered at study enrollment, a (2) a 12-month follow-up survey, and (3) a 30-month follow-up survey. Surveys will be conducted by staff at Mathematica's Survey Operations Center using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). Survey data may be supplemented with administrative records data from the Denver Health system.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALMotherWise Program
Healthy Marriage or Relationship Education services for pregnant women.
Sponsors
Department of Health and Human Services
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
To be eligible, women must be expecting a baby or had a baby in the past 3 months.
Exclusion criteria
To be eligible, women must not be incarcerated.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Depressive symptoms | 1 year after random assignment | Eight-item scale (ranges from 0 to 24; based on PHQ-8) |
| Perceived romantic relationship skills | 1 year after random assignment | Six-item scale (ranges from 1 to 4) |
| Perceived conflict management skills | 1 year after random assignment | Five-item scale (ranges from 1 to 4) |
| Support for going slow in romantic relationships | 1 year after random assignment | One-item scale (ranges from 1 to 4) |
| Disapproval of couple violence | 1 year after random assignment | Five-item scale (ranges from 1 to 4) |
| Any psychological abuse | 1 year after random assignment | A binary variable equal to 1 if the mother indicates that a romantic partner has subjected her to psychological abuse in the past year. |
| Any physical abuse | 1 year after random assignment | A binary variable equal to 1 if the mother indicates that a romantic partner has pushed, shoved, kicked, punched or beaten her up in the past year. |
| Had an unintended pregnancy since program enrollment | 1 year after random assignment | A binary variable equal to 1 if the mother reported having had an unintended pregnancy since random assignment. |
| Quality of co-parenting relationship with baby's father | 1 year after random assignment | Ten-item scale (ranges from 0 to 10) |
| Number of relationship transitions | 30 months after random assignment | This is a continuous variable representing the number of relationship transitions the mother reported since random assignment. A relationship transition occurs each time a romantic relationship begins or ends. |
| Material hardship | 30 months after random assignment | This continuous variable ranges from 0 to 6 and reflects how many of six possible things a mother had done in the past year because she did not have enough money. |
| Child social-emotional and behavioral problems | 30 months after random assignment | This 31-item scale is a measure of the child's social-emotional and behavioral problems with higher scores indicating more problems. |
| Child social-emotional abilities | 30 months after random assignment | This 11-item scale is a measure of the child's social-emotional abilities-such as empathy, prosocial behaviors, and compliance-with higher scores indicating higher competence. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed