Positive Parenting
Conditions
Brief summary
Father-child pairs (N=200; children ages 12-36 months) will be randomized to FIND-F or a waitlist control group. Assessments comparing the two groups will occur at baseline, end of program, and 6 months post-program. Our aims include: Aim 1: Evaluate the main impacts of FIND-F on the primary program target (fathers' supportive parenting) and related child and parent outcomes. Aim 2. Identify mechanisms of FIND-F's intervention effects. Aim 3. Examine variation by select child, father, and program measures.
Detailed description
The proposed work will achieve three specific aims in the context of a two-arm, fully powered RCT. This will be one of the first large-scale RCTs focused on evaluating the impacts and underlying theory of a nurturing fathering program. As fathers enroll, they will be randomly assigned to either FIND-F (Group A) or a waitlist control group (Group B). A waitlist control group design is proposed based on community views that it would be unethical to deny consenting, eligible fathers access to FIND-F. This is a common approach in early childhood evaluations to increase program access. Both groups will be assessed at three time points: baseline, endpoint, and 6-Month follow-up. After the 6-month follow-up assessment, the waitlist group will be given the opportunity to receive FIND-F. Each FIND-F session focuses on a specific element of a serve and return interaction, using the edited films to support fathers in learning about that element. The five elements are: (a) Sharing Child's Focus- when the father notices what the child is interested in and puts his attention there too; (b) Supporting and Encouraging- when the father responds to the child's "serve" through acknowledging, soothing, comforting, or praising the child; (c) Naming - when the father provides a word or explanation for what the child is seeing, doing, or feeling; (d) Back and Forth- when the father and child continue interacting in a longer back-and-forth manner; and (e) Endings and Beginnings- when a child signals the end of an activity, a new serve and return interaction begins, and the father follows the child's lead.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALFilming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND)
FIND-F is a 6-session manualized program that begins with the home visitor taking a 10-minute video of the father and child engaging in an everyday activity (e.g., playing, having a snack). Then, that video is carefully edited to emphasize the specific strengths observed in the father-child interactions. The brief, edited videos are then reviewed with the father the following week. In reviewing the video clips, the home visitor uses micro-analytic narration, highlighting the frame-by-frame sequence of events that fosters the child's healthy development. In this way, the goal of FIND-F is to shift the father's perceptions of himself and his child, enabling the father to become increasingly responsive and encouraging. Home visitors also provide opportunities for fathers to comment and ask questions throughout the video review.
Sponsors
University of Washington
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Stanford University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
12 Months to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Identify as a father * Speak English or Spanish * Have a child between the ages of 12-36 months who lives with you * Be enrolled in Akin services
Exclusion criteria
* No additional
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Fathers' Supportive Parenting Practices | From enrollment to the end of treatment at 7 weeks | Fathers' supportive parenting skills will be observed through videotaped father-child interactions. Fathers will be provided with a standard bag of toys and asked to "share these toys with your child as you normally would." Each set of toys (one set for pretest, one for endpoint, and one for follow-up) has been carefully selected with input from home visitors about which toys could support interactions across the age range in our study. The first 10 minutes of the videotaped interactions will be coded using the PICCOLO-D (Dads' Parenting Interactions with Children Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes). |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Father Identity | From enrollment to the end of treatment at 7 weeks | Fathers' identity related to the fathering role will be measured with The Pie, which instructs fathers to create a graphical representation of their psychological investment in the different aspects of their lives (Cowan \& Cowan, 1991). More specifically, fathers will be asked to list the main roles in their lives and then divide a circle (pie) into pieces so that the size of each piece represents the importance of that role. In this study, the degrees of the circle that represent fathering or parenting will be recorded. |
| Children's Behavior Problems and Social and Emotional Competence | From enrollment to the end of treatment at 7 weeks | We will use the Brief Infant-Toddler Social-Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) to measure both behavior problems and social and emotional competence (Briggs-Gowan, Carter, McCarthy, Augustyn, \& Clark, 2013). The BITSEA is a standardized parent-reported measure of 42 items. |
| Father Involvement | From enrollment to the end of treatment at 7 weeks | Fathers' involvement will be captured through the Father Engagement Scale (Dyer et al., 2015). This measure is for use with fathers of children 12 months to 6 years and asks fathers 10 questions on a 5-point scale about the frequency of their engagement in activities such as playing with toys, hugging their child, talking with their child, and encouraging their child. |
| Parenting Stress | From enrollment to the end of treatment at 7 weeks | Fathers' parenting stress will be measured using the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) (Loyd \& Abidin, 1985). The PSI-SF asks parents of children birth to 12 years old to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement about 36 statements on a 5-point scale regarding their level of stress, how difficult their child is to manage, and whether parenting fits their expectations. |
Countries
United States
Contacts
CONTACTHolly Schindler, PhD
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORHolly Schindler, PhD
University of Washington
Outcome results
None listed