Infant Development, Parent-Child Relations
Conditions
Keywords
Universal intervention, Playful Learning, Infant, Parental competence, Socioemotional, Public health visitors, Prevention
Brief summary
In the Playful Learning in Infancy Program, parents receive research-based educational guidance on playful interactions with their infants aged 0-1 year. They learn to recognize their infants' cues indicating readiness to engage in play and they are introduced to specific, developmentally appropriate activities for interactive engagement. The guidance is delivered to parents during routine home visits by public health visitors. The aims of the Playful Learning in Infancy Program are to 1) promote playful interactions between infants and parents, parental attitudes towards play, and infant socioemotional development; 2) enhance the language and knowledge of playful learning in infancy among frontline staff; and 3) evaluate the Playful Learning in Infancy Program for potential testing in a future large-scale RCT study. Evaluation is based on a parallel group study design, with half of the participants receiving care as usual and half of the participants receiving care as usual along with the Playful Learning in Infancy Program.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALPlayful Learning in Infancy Program
Research-based knowledge on play with babies delivered to the parents systematically by public health visitors based on a manual, activity cards, and video clips at four time points from 0 to 12 months postpartum.
BEHAVIORALPostnatal care as usual
In accordance with Danish national guidelines, health visitors visit families during the infants first year of life, where they weigh and measure the infant. Further, they offer individual guidance and support regarding for instance feeding, sleeping, how to stimulate the infant, and the developmental stages that the infant goes through.
Sponsors
University of Copenhagen
LEGO Foundation
Study design
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
Evaluation is based on a parallel group study, with half of the participants receiving care as usual and half of the participants receiving care as usual along with the Playful Learning in Infancy Program.
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Residence address in the Danish municipalities of Hvidovre or Billund * Residence address with child or legal custody of the child * Child is between 1-7 months old * Understands Danish or English
Exclusion criteria
* Parental age under the age of 18 when the child is born * Multiple pregnancy
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Parental Playful interactions | T2 (infant age 3-3.5 months), T3 (infant age 7-7.5 months), and T4 (infant age 10-10.5 months) | Playful interactions are assessed using The Parent Play Questionnaire (PPQ) by Ahmadzadeh et al. (2020), which assesses the frequency of parent-child play and screen use. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Parental Stress | T3 (infant age 7-7.5 months) | Maternal and paternal parenting stress is assessed via self-report using the Parenting Stress Index™, Third Edition Short Form (PSI-3-SF; Abidin, 1995). |
| Infant Socio-emotional Development | T5 (infant age 11-11.5 months) | Infant socio-emotional development is assessed via parental report using the Ages \& Stages Questionnaires®: Social-Emotional, Second Edition (ASQ:SE-2; Squires, Bricker, \& Twombly, 2015). |
| Infant Level of Play | T4 (infant age 10-10.5 months) | We have developed questions for the parents to report on the child's level of play, based on Belsky, J., \& Most, R. K. (1981). |
| Parental Mind-Mindedness | T5 (infant age 11-11.5 months) | Parental mind-mindedness is assessed using a written response to the first question from the "Describe your child" interview (Meins et al., 1998). Mind-mindedness is coded according to the criteria specified in the mind-mindedness coding manual (Meins \& Fernyhough, 2015). |
| Parental Attachment Style | T1/Enrollment (4 weeks - 8 months) | Parents' attachment style is assessed using the Experience in Close Relationships-Revised-Short Form (ECR-RS) questionnaire (Fraley et al., 2000). |
| Parental Mental Well-Being | T1/Enrollment (4 weeks - 8 months) and T5 (infant age 11-11.5 months) | Parental mental well-being is assessed using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale - (S)WEMWBS (Tennant et al., 2007). |
| Infant Screen Time | T2 (infant age 3-3.5 months), T3 (infant age 7-7.5 months), and T4 (infant age 10-10.5 months) | The infant's screen time is assessed using quantitative questions developed for the project and administered to parents. |
| Questions developed for the study regarding Parental Involvement | T2 (infant age 3-3.5 months), T3 (infant age 7-7.5 months), and T4 (infant age 10-10.5 months) | Questions developed for the study regarding the parent's involvement in the child's life and daily activities. |
| Questions developed for the study regarding Parental Knowledge of Play | T2 (infant age 3-3.5 months), T3 (infant age 7-7.5 months), and T4 (infant age 10-10.5 months) | Questions developed for the study for parents in the intervention group regarding knowledge of play. |
| Parental Experience of the PLIP | Immediately after the intervention | Qualitative interviews with a subsample of parents. |
| Health Visitors' Experience of the PLIP | Immediately after the intervention | Qualitative interviews with a subsample of health visitors. |
Countries
Denmark
Contacts
CONTACTMette S. Væver, PhD
CONTACTMaja Nyström-Hansen, PhD
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORMette S. Væver
University of Copenhagen
Outcome results
None listed