Connect to Baby: A Pilot Study of a Parenting and Coparenting Program
The proposed project is a randomized control trial to assess a novel 6-session parenting and coparenting intervention for low-income parents of infants. Connect to Baby (CTB) will be implemented within one of the largest federally-funded early care and education programs, Early Head Start (EHS), in Washington, DC. To engage both fathers and mothers, CTB recruits parents at the time of birth, capitalizing on the "magic moment" of delivery, and uses father-inclusive digital media content to engage men. A key innovation lies in the introduction and rehearsal of four interaction skills -- Noticing, Following, Talking, and Encouraging (NiFTE, pronounced "Nifty") -- to foster serve-and-return interactions with infants as well as supportive, cooperative coparenting interactions between mothers and fathers. To maximize program uptake, CTB is situated within an early education program parents already trust and attend. Additionally, the study will test hybrid program delivery with both in-person and remote sessions using video-enabled tablets to reduce scheduling and logistical barriers and thereby enhance retention. The specific aims of the project are to assess efficacy of random assignment to Hybrid delivery of CTB relative to EHS as usual at enhancing parenting and coparenting quality and parent and child wellbeing. If demonstrated to be efficacious, this program will provide Early Head Start (and other family-serving agencies) a brief cost-effective, manualized preventive intervention that could be used alone or in conjunction with other services to improve parent functioning and co-parenting, further engage fathers in programming and caregiving, and, ultimately, enhance child development.
🗓️ Study Start (Actual)
1 August 2023
🗓️ Primary Completion (Estimated)
31 October 2024
✅ Study Completion (Estimated)
31 December 2024
👥 Enrollment (Estimated)
200
🔬 Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
📊 Phase
NA
Locations:
📍
Washington, District of Columbia, United States
Description
Inclusion Criteria:
- * Must be a mother, father (or father figure, including same sex parent and grandparent) of an infant who is 2-24 months.
- * Must speak and read English or Spanish with sufficient fluency for completion of consent forms and questionnaires and actively participate in the intervention.
Exclusion Criteria:
- • Pre-intervention assessment their score on the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) Interpersonal Violence (IPV) screener (Brown, Lent, Schmidt, \& Sas, 2000) indicates sexual or physical abuse.
Ages Eligible for Study:
2 Months to 40 Years (CHILD, ADULT)
Sexes Eligible for Study: ALL
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Yes
These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported
results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before
being posted on the public website.
Study Registration Dates
- First Submitted
18 May 2023
- First Submitted that Met QC Criteria
19 December 2023
- First Posted
22 December 2023
Study Record Updates
- Last Update Submitted that Met QC Criteria
19 December 2023
- Last Update Posted
22 December 2023
- Last Verified
December 2023