Ammerman Lab
Co-parenting and Father Engagement in Home Visiting

Co-Parenting and Father Engagement in Home Visiting

Home visiting programs were created to provide low-income mothers and their young children with training, teaching and support during the critical first years of life. Engaging and incorporating fathers into home visiting through an integrated co-parenting intervention has the potential to significantly improve psychosocial outcomes in children participating in home visitation by strengthening the working relationship between mothers and fathers, creating a nurturing and supportive environment for growing children, and reducing exposure to parental conflict.

We have partnered with Mark Feinberg, PhD, of Pennsylvania State University to test an adapted version of Family Foundations (FF), an evidence-based program focused on enhancing co-parenting, for the home visiting population in Every Child Succeeds. Data from Every Child Succeeds indicates that many fathers are actively involved with their children in the six months following birth, with 86 percent seeing their children weekly and 67 percent daily.

These rates drop off significantly over time, and reduction in positive father involvement is linked to mother-father co-parenting and relationship difficulties. Given the large investment that has already been made in HV programs, there is a compelling and urgent need to amplify its impacts by fostering positive co-parenting and father engagement.

Engaging Fathers in Home Visitation: Incorporation of a Co-parenting Intervention

R01 funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Development: Building upon previous efforts to incorporate evidence-based interventions into the home visitation setting, this study seeks to adapt Family Foundations, a co-parenting 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 visiting services. In a second phase, a clinical trial will be conducted to determine the efficacy of the adapted intervention (FFHV) 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 FFHV and HVA conditions. FFVH will consist of eight in-home and two group sessions administered weekly and in two equal parts at approximately two months before birth and two months postpartum. Both the FFHV and HVA participants will be assessed at pre-intervention, post-intervention (4 months postpartum), and nine- 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 co-parenting, 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.

Co-Investigators include James L. Peugh, PhD (Cincinnati Children's) and Mark Feinberg, PhD (Pennsylvania State University).

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