Efficacy of Family Programs for Improving Child and Family Health and Development

Summary

The proposed research is relevant to public health because of the critical importance of infant attachment and early experiences to the lifetime trajectory of mental health and socio-emotional functioning. This Randomized Clinical Trial addresses major gaps in available family-wide programs that can promote healthy development that best serve infants, mothers, fathers, and inter-parental relationships in cost-effective ways. This study also systematically tests for which families the interventions are most effective and rigorously tests the theoretical processes that link changes in mother-infant, father-infant, and mother-father interactions with infant and parent outcomes.

Conditions

• Behavior, Infant

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Control

Parents receive 8 phone contacts (1 per week) that do not focus on material in the sensitivity and couples communication intervention.

BEHAVIORAL

Sensitivity Intervention

4 home visits take place. Mothers and fathers are video recorded with their infant (separately) for approximate 10-15 minutes at the beginning of each visit. The recorded situations are natural (e.g., playing together, bathing the baby, mealtime, etc.) and the family coach (interventionist) is not actively involved in the parent-child interaction. A different theme is covered across the four intervention sessions. For each parent-infant interaction recording, the family coach reviews the recordings between visits and provides feedback to parents in the following intervention session. The exception to this is that video of parent-child interactions during the lab pre-test is used for material at the first home visit. Each session takes approximately 90 minutes. Visits occur over an 8 week period with phone contacts between each session. Because of COVID-19, we now conduct remote visits using Zoom.

BEHAVIORAL

Couples' Intervention

The psycho-educational inter-parental conflict prevention curriculum is a 4-session program that takes place in the families' homes. Each session lasts approximately 90 minutes and involves discussion and practice of four themes pertinent to improving conflict process, communication, and emotional security in the family: Conflict Overview, Interparental Conflict and Children, Stresses of Parenting, and Emotional Security. The family coach scaffolds and supports the couples' development of constructive conflict behaviors. Visits occur over an 8 week period with phone contacts between each session. Because of COVID-19, we now conduct remote visits using Zoom.

BEHAVIORAL

Sensitivity and Couples' Intervention

This group receives both the Sensitivity and Couples' Intervention in their home. There are 8 home visits (4 for Sensitivity and 4 for Couples Intervention). Because of COVID-19, we now conduct remote visits using Zoom.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)

  collaborator NIH

• University of Notre Dame

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Julia Braungart-Rieker, Ph.D. · Colorado State University

• E M Cummings, Ph.D. · University of Notre Dame

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

FACTORIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

6 Months

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-01-11

Primary Completion

2026-06-30

Completion

2026-06-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations