Clinical trial NCT01851577: Engaging Fathers in Home Visitation
Official title: Engaging Fathers in Home Visitation: Incorporation of a Coparenting Intervention
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Interparental Conflict
Parenting
Parent-child Relations
Fathers
Keywords: Coparenting
Problem solving
Child development
Father involvement
Lead sponsor: Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
name: Penn State University
First posted: 2013-05-10
Enrollment: 320
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 45
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of Family Foundations that is to be delivered concurrently with home visiting. Delivered prenatally and postnatally, Family Foundations is a coparenting prevention program for new mothers and fathers that is designed to optimize child outcomes by teaching parents how to work together in raising their child. Using a randomized clinical trial design, families will be assigned to receive Family Foundations + home visiting or home visiting alone. A comprehensive assessment is administered at baseline and then at post-intervention, and 9 and 18 months later. It is hypothesized that families receiving Family Foundations will improve in their resolving of conflict from pre-intervention through follow-up. Additional anticipated outcomes are that those receiving the intervention will have more involved fathers, mothers and fathers will report less conflict, and children will have better emotional and behavioral outcomes relative to those who receive home visiting alone.

Detailed description: Home visitation is a prevention program for sociodemographically high risk, first-time mothers and their families that is designed to optimize child health and development. Most home visitation programs seek to engage fathers in the service and promote greater positive involvement with their children, although systematic and efficacious strategies to achieve this have not been developed and tested. Yet, it is well-documented that positive father involvement and mutually supportive relationships between fathers and mothers impart direct benefits to both children and their parents. Building upon previous efforts to incorporate evidence-based interventions into the home visitation setting, this study seeks to adapt Family Foundations, a coparenting intervention with a strong empirical foundation, as an augmented strategy in ongoing home visitation. In a first phase of qualitative investigation, we will adapt the format and content of Family Foundations for implementation in the home, addressing the needs of high risk mothers and fathers, and integrate it into standard home visitation services. In a second phase, a clinical trial will be conducted to determine the efficacy of the adapted intervention (HVFF) in contrast to a control condition of home visitation alone (HVA). Specifically, 300 mother/father dyads in home visitation will be recruited prenatally and randomly assigned to HVFF and HVA conditions. HVFF will consist of 8 in-home and 2 group sessions administered weekly and in two equal parts at approximately 2 months before birth and 4 months postpartum. Both the HVFF and HVA participants will be assessed at pre-intervention, post-intervention (5 months postpartum), and 9 and 18 month follow-ups. A comprehensive assessment battery will be administered at each assessment measuring parental cooperation, quality of parental relationship, father involvement, beliefs about parenting, parental psychological adjustment, and intimate partner violence. After the child's birth, child development and social/emotional adjustment will be measured and parenting practices will be videotaped and subsequently rated for parenting quality. It is hypothesized that, relative to controls, fathers in the HVFF condition will participate more frequently and more positively in standard home visits and will be more involved with their children; mothers and fathers in the HVFF condition will have higher levels of coparenting, and lower levels of depression, parental stress, and child abuse potential; and children in the HVFF condition will be more behaviorally and emotionally well-adjusted. Mediators of intervention outcomes will also be explored.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* First time, prenatal mother participating in a home visiting program
* Biological father interested in being involved with child
* 18 years of age or older
* English speaking

Exclusion Criteria:

* Current substance dependence
* Current psychosis
* Current intimate partner violence

Primary outcomes:
measure: mother and father resolving of conflict
timeFrame: pre-intervention, post-intervention (up to 9 months after pre-intervention), up to 18 months after pre-intervention, up to 27 months after pre-intervention
Secondary outcomes:
measure: child development
timeFrame: post-intervention (up to 9 months after pre-intervention), up to 18 months after pre-intervention, up to 27 months after pre-intervention
Other outcomes:
measure: father involvement in raising child
timeFrame: pre-intervention, post-intervention (up to 9 months after pre-intervention), up to 18 months after pre-intervention, up to 27 months after pre-intervention
Locations:
city: Cincinnati
country: United States
facility: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
state: Ohio
Study officials:
affiliation: Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati
name: Robert T. Ammerman, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Solmeyer AR, Feinberg ME, Coffman DL, Jones DE. The effects of the family foundations prevention program on coparenting and child adjustment: a mediation analysis. Prev Sci. 2014 Apr;15(2):213-223. doi: 10.1007/s11121-013-0366-x.
citation: Feinberg ME, Jones DE, Kan ML, Goslin MC. Effects of family foundations on parents and children: 3.5 years after baseline. J Fam Psychol. 2010 Oct;24(5):532-42. doi: 10.1037/a0020837.
citation: Ammerman RT, Putnam FW, Kopke JE, Gannon TA, Short JA, Van Ginkel JB, Clark MJ, Carrozza MA, Spector AR. Development and implementation of a quality assurance infrastructure in a multisite home visitation program in Ohio and Kentucky. J Prev Interv Community. 2007;34(1-2):89-107. doi: 10.1300/J005v34n01_05.
citation: Ammerman RT, Peugh JL, Teeters AR, Sakuma KK, Jones DE, Hostetler ML, Van Ginkel JB, Feinberg ME. Promoting parenting in home visiting: A CACE analysis of Family Foundations. J Fam Psychol. 2022 Mar;36(2):225-235. doi: 10.1037/fam0000888. Epub 2021 Jun 24.