Father-child pairs (N=200; children ages 12-36 months) will be randomized to FIND-F or a waitlist control group. Assessments comparing the two groups will occur at baseline, end of program, and 6 months post-program. Our aims include:
Aim 1: Evaluate the main impacts of FIND-F on the primary program target (fathers' supportive parenting) and related child and parent outcomes.
Aim 2. Identify mechanisms of FIND-F's intervention effects.
Aim 3. Examine variation by select child, father, and program measures.
Identify as a father
Speak English or Spanish
Have a child between the ages of 12-36 months who lives with you
Be enrolled in Akin services
No additional exclusion criteria
Parallel
Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND)
BehavioralFIND-F is a 6-session manualized program that begins with the home visitor taking a 10-minute video of the father and child engaging in an everyday activity (e.g., playing, having a snack). Then, that video is carefully edited to emphasize the specific strengths observed in the father-child interactions. The brief, edited videos are then reviewed with the father the following week. In reviewing the video clips, the home visitor uses micro-analytic narration, highlighting the frame-by-frame sequence of events that fosters the child's healthy development. In this way, the goal of FIND-F is to shift the father's perceptions of himself and his child, enabling the father to become increasingly responsive and encouraging. Home visitors also provide opportunities for fathers to comment and ask questions throughout the video review.
Fathers' Supportive Parenting Practices
Fathers' supportive parenting skills will be observed through videotaped father-child interactions. Fathers will be provided with a standard bag of toys and asked to "share these toys with your child as you normally would." Each set of toys (one set for pretest, one for endpoint, and one for follow-up) has been carefully selected with input from home visitors about which toys could support interactions across the age range in our study. The first 10 minutes of the videotaped interactions will be coded using the PICCOLO-D (Dads' Parenting Interactions with Children Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes).
Fathers' Supportive Parenting Practices
Fathers' supportive parenting skills will be observed through videotaped father-child interactions. Fathers will be provided with a standard bag of toys and asked to "share these toys with your child as you normally would." Each set of toys (one set for pretest, one for endpoint, and one for follow-up) has been carefully selected with input from home visitors about which toys could support interactions across the age range in our study. The first 10 minutes of the videotaped interactions will be coded using the PICCOLO-D (Dads' Parenting Interactions with Children Checklist of Observations Linked to Outcomes).
Parenting Stress
Fathers' parenting stress will be measured using the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) (Loyd \& Abidin, 1985). The PSI-SF asks parents of children birth to 12 years old to indicate their level of agreement or disagreement about 36 statements on a 5-point scale regarding their level of stress, how difficult their child is to manage, and whether parenting fits their expectations.
Father Identity
Fathers' identity related to the fathering role will be measured with The Pie, which instructs fathers to create a graphical representation of their psychological investment in the different aspects of their lives (Cowan \& Cowan, 1991). More specifically, fathers will be asked to list the main roles in their lives and then divide a circle (pie) into pieces so that the size of each piece represents the importance of that role. In this study, the degrees of the circle that represent fathering or parenting will be recorded.
Children's Behavior Problems and Social and Emotional Competence
We will use the Brief Infant-Toddler Social-Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) to measure both behavior problems and social and emotional competence (Briggs-Gowan, Carter, McCarthy, Augustyn, \& Clark, 2013). The BITSEA is a standardized parent-reported measure of 42 items.
Father Involvement
Fathers' involvement will be captured through the Father Engagement Scale (Dyer et al., 2015). This measure is for use with fathers of children 12 months to 6 years and asks fathers 10 questions on a 5-point scale about the frequency of their engagement in activities such as playing with toys, hugging their child, talking with their child, and encouraging their child.
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University of Washington
Lead sponsor
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Collaborator
Stanford University
Collaborator
