Supporting Responsible Fatherhood Program (Fatherhood FIRE)

Montefiore Medicine Academic Health System

Status: Completed

Conditions: Parenting; Family Relations; Father-Child Relations

Treatments: Behavioral: HERO Dads Program

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05311592

2021-12757

Details and patient eligibility

About

Montefiore Medical Center (in partnership with BronxWorks) is implementing a large-scope program to promote responsible fatherhood in the Bronx among low-income adult (18 years or older) fathers with non-custodial children (under the age of 24). The program, called HERO Dads (Healthy, Empowered, Resilient, Open Dads), will promote responsible fatherhood by enhancing relationship and anger-management skills and providing marriage education; providing skills-based parenting education, disseminating information about good parenting practices, and encouraging child support payments (in partnership with our local OCSE); and fostering economic stability by providing employment-related supports inclusive of job search, vocational skills training, job referrals, and job retention.

Full description

The program model is based on the premise that relationship and parenting skills can be taught, and will lead to improvements in relationships (knowledge about relationships, communication skills, stress management, reduction in destructive conflict), parenting (knowledge about child development, engagement with non-custodial children, effective parenting, co-parent communication, child well-being), and economic status (vocational skills, new employment or career advancement, financial literacy, child support). The investigator will provide core relationship and relationship education workshops using an empirically supported curriculum (24/7 Dad) plus employment workshops, numerous supplemental activities to promote responsible fatherhood, individualized vocational case management, and job-driven employment services. In total, the investigator expects to enroll 1,475 non-custodial fathers in the program and provide an average of 34 hours of total programming per participant (including 24 hours of core workshops), which the investigator believes is a sufficient dosage to detect impacts.

Enrollment: 496 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Non-custodial fathers who are 18 years or older
• Have non-custodial children (biological, foster, adopted) under the age of 24
• Income below 200% poverty line

Exclusion criteria

• Active intimate partner violence and increased risk of intimate partner violence

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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496 participants in 2 patient groups

In Person

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will receive all services in person, including participating in the initial intake process, and attending all workshops.

Treatment:

Behavioral: HERO Dads Program

Virtual (Zoom)

Experimental group

Description:

Participants will complete their intake process in person, but will complete all workshops virtually through Zoom.

Treatment:

Behavioral: HERO Dads Program