Randomized Controlled Trial of Prenatal Coparenting Intervention (CoparentRCT)

University of South Florida

Status: Completed

Conditions: Parenting

Treatments: Behavioral: Focused Coparenting Consultation

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT03097991

R01HD082211 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

NIH 5R01HD082211-01

Details and patient eligibility

About

This R01 tests through RCT methodology efficacy of a new intervention designed specifically to aid development of positive coparenting alliances between at-risk (unmarried, uncoupled, low income) African American mothers and fathers having a first baby together.

Full description

Seventy-five randomly-assigned control group families will receive county services as-usual (TAU) for pregnant parents and assistance of the partnering health and human service agencies with referrals to desired services, while 75 experimental group families will receive the same services and aid, plus a 6-session prenatal intervention with a post-natal booster session. The intervention addresses the importance of safe, healthy families for early infant development, the impact a cooperative and sustained coparenting alliance can have in promoting positive infant development, challenges unmarried parents face cultivating a coparenting alliance together when their commitment to one another as romantic or married partners is in doubt, and ways to surmount these obstacles, maintain rapport, and sustain a strong alliance. Participating families, both at intake (prior to the intervention) and then again at 3 and 12 months post-partum, will report beliefs about fatherhood; extent of depressive symptomatology; and quality of the mother-father partnership, including intimate partner violence (IPV). State-of-the-field coparenting observations will be conducted at each follow-up, along with new measures of perceived coparenting communication and respect, father engagement, parent stress, and (at 12 months) infant socioemotional adjustment. Analyses will examine impact of the intervention on promoting more supportive, coordinated post-partum coparenting alliances and more positive adult and infant outcomes. Exploratory analyses will examine questions relevant to father associations with child adjustment and whether the dyadic coparent intervention has an impact on IPV.

Enrollment: 276 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 14 to 60 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

An applicant is considered eligible if the pregnancy is the mother's first with the baby's father; the mother and father are unmarried; and reported income places at or below the county and state poverty line. The target population is African American, but mixed race parents may also enroll so long as at least one parent is African American. Minor parents will be recruited only if legally emancipated or with consent of their parent or guardian (with an exception allowed if minor parent is estranged from parent or LAR). If a potential participant reports a prior history of IPV, s/he may still be eligible for participation pending a more detailed assessment completed by trained project staff using the Danger Assessment Scale (Campbell, 2003).

Exclusion criteria

Families are excluded if either partner 1) has recently (within the past year) been arrested and convicted for violence (assault) perpetrated against someone other than a current or former partner who is the co-parent of one of their children; 2) demonstrates evidence of psychotic symptoms or suicidal ideation on the Brief Symptom Inventory; or 3) is deemed high risk or in need of more intensive intervention. Risk determination is made by weighing the parent's report on the Danger Assessment Scale (DAS). As a rule of thumb, DAS scores of 9 or higher result in automatic exclusion from the study. However, even with a score below 9, a parent may disclose one or more of the following issues during administration of the DAS - any of which would result in exclusion from the study: 1) parent reports requiring medical care because of significant injuries due to partner's violence, 2) parent says she fears for her life, 3) parent reports that the partner has threatened with a weapon and owns a gun or has a gun in the household; 4) parent reports that the partner has threatened to kill her; 5) parent reports that violence has escalated recently; 6) parent reports the partner's use of illicit drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamines, hallucinogens, or opiates.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

276 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention: Treatment as Usual + Focused Coparenting Consult

Experimental group

Description:

Receipt of Treatment As Usual/Resource and Referral supports, plus opportunity to complete six 90-minute Focused Coparenting Consultation (FCC) sessions followed by one postnatal booster session designed to strengthen the mother-father coparenting alliance

Treatment:

Behavioral: Focused Coparenting Consultation

Control: Treatment as Usual

No Intervention group

Description:

Receipt of TAU/Resource and Referral supports