Parenting Education Curriculum, Parenting Education Curriculum + Case Management, Waiting List Control
Conditions
Keywords
single father, parenting behavior
Brief summary
Through Stepping Up 4 Your Child, non-custodial fathers will be provided with a comprehensive, solution-oriented program featuring group based parent education and individualized case management to help them achieve financial independence, increase their parenting skills, and develop a co-parenting alliance.
Detailed description
Fathers' involvement in their children's lives has received increased attention in recent years. In response, support has grown for responsible fatherhood programs aimed at improving the quantity and quality of fathers' involvement. Research on these programs has concluded that factors such as fathers' parenting skills, co-parenting relationship quality, and socioeconomic status all impact fathers' ability to contribute to their children's growth and development. Using this previous research as a foundation, the Stepping Up 4 Your Child project will go beyond traditional fatherhood initiatives by integrating the provision of responsible parenting, economic stability, and relationship education services to fathers at risk for paternal disengagement. To do so, the University of Louisville's Kent School of Social Work will leverage its existing relationship with the Kentucky Office of Child Support Enforcement. Specifically, through Stepping Up 4 Your Child, non-custodial fathers will be provided with a comprehensive, solution-oriented program featuring group based parent education and individualized case management to help them achieve financial independence, increase their parenting skills, and develop a co-parenting alliance. Given that each of these focus areas have all been cited as three of the strongest predictors of paternal engagement, Stepping Up 4 Your Child and the results of its evaluation will have significant implications for the families it serves, as well as the practitioners, researchers, and policymakers interested in responsible fatherhood. 1
Interventions
BEHAVIORAL4 Your Child Program
Integrates the provision of responsible parenting, economic stability, and relationship education services to fathers at risk for paternal disengagement.
Sponsors
Kentucky Cabinet for Health & Family Services
University of Louisville
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
MALE
Age
16 Years to 105 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* non-custodial father AND * age 16-24 OR * age 24 up + low income OR * age 24 up + child support payment delinquent
Exclusion criteria
* female * custodial father * male but not a father * younger than age 16
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Fathering Knowledge and Skills. | immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later | Fathering knowledge and skills will be measured using the 24/7 Dad Fathering Skills Survey (National Fatherhood Initiative, 2010). This survey has 25 items that are multiple choice response questions. This survey comes with the 24/7 Dad curriculum packet. Given that this survey is a measure of fathering knowledge and not a standardized scale, no reliability data are available. |
| Change in Fathers' Parenting Behavior. | immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later | Fathers' reported parenting behavior will be measured using the Index of Father Involvement (Hawkins et al., 2002). This measure has 9 factors loaded as subscales designed to tap direct and indirect forms of involvement and a total of 26 items. All items are measured on a 5 point scale ranging from A (excellent) to F (failing). The measure has a reported reliability/internal consistency score of .69 |
| Change in Child Support Compliance. | immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later | These payment data will be obtained via reports from the Kentucky Office of Child Support Enforcement. |
| Change in Co-Parenting Relationship Quality. | immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later | Co-Parenting Relationship Quality. Co-parenting relationship quality will be measured using the Co-parenting Questionnaire (CQ, Margolis, Gordis, & John, 2001). This measure is a 14-item self-report instrument examining: 1) the amount of conflict between parents surrounding parenting issues, 2) cooperation as the extent to which mothers and fathers support, value, and respect each other as parents and the degree to which they ease one another's parenting burden, and 3) triangulation, the extent to which parents distort parent-child boundaries by attempting to form a coalition with the child that undermines or excludes the other parent. The 14 items form a three factor structure and have good internal consistency with alphas for the 3 factors and the total scale ranging from .69 to .87. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Conflict Resolution Skills. | immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later | The Stanley-Markman Relationship Dynamics Scale (Renick et al, 1992) will be used to measure conflict resolution skills. This measure has reported Chronbach's alpha levels of .73 and .81 (Stanley et al, 2006) and strong predictive validity for relationship failure. |
| Change in Communication Skills. | immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later | Communication skills will be measured through the Communication Patterns Questionnaire to assess communication skills. This measure has strong discriminant validity and Chronbach's alpha levels ranging from .73 to .88 (Noller & White, 1990). |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed