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OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT05285267

Engaging Male Caregivers in Effective Prevention Programming to Reduce Risk of Violence and Violence-Related Injury

Fathers are disproportionately involved in and responsible for family violence. Forty percent of maltreatment cases include the child's father, which is quite considerable when one considers mothers spend more time with the child during the day and engage in a greater variety of activities, relative to fathers. Importantly, the majority of child victims were those five and younger.

Contrary to these potential negative impacts, fathers contribute positively to many aspects of child development and overall family functioning, making unique contributions to child peer relationships, language development, academic skills, and the proficiency of the other parent in parenting tasks. Thus, efforts to emphasize the father's role in the child's life, and attenuate any potential risks due to child or family directed violence, represent key public health initiatives within prevention efforts.

There are many potential prevention programs that have been developed to support male caregivers. The Nurturing Fathers program and the Coaching Our Children: Heightening Essential Skills program are two examples of father-focused preventive intervention efforts. However, these approaches have not typically been evaluated as preventive interventions in community-based samples using scientifically rigorous methods. Thus, the present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of these approaches in reducing family violence and improving male caregiver competencies in a randomized, controlled trial. Specifically, Nurturing Fathers Alone and Nurturing Fathers + COACHES will be compared to an attention control, and male caregivers and their children will be randomly assigned to one of the three groups.

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Key information

Conditions

Child Maltreatment Parenting

Age range

3 year–6 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Center for Children and Families

Amherst, New York, 14226, United States

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Resident of Western New York
  • Have a target child three to six years of age
  • Have a male caregiver who consents to participate in the study
  • Caregiver and child can speak and understand English.

Exclusion criteria

  • A child with an estimated IQ less than 70
  • Any child who is presenting with severe developmental delays (e.g., autism level 2 or 3)
  • A child or caregiver who previously participated in the study
  • Any target child who has a male or female caregiver who has had a previous, founded, child protection complaint (will be excluded from the study and referred to alternative programming)

Treatment and study plan

Behavioral Parent Support

Behavioral

Parent training on effective child management strategies

Shared Parent-Child Activities

Behavioral

Structured parent-child activities

COACHES

Behavioral

This intervention involves practice of parenting strategies with facilitator monitoring and support.

Primary outcomes

  1. Behavioral Observations of Parenting

    Time frame: Baseline, End of Intervention (8 weeks later), 1 month after end of intervention (12 weeks later)

    The Dyadic Parent Child Interaction Coding scheme will be used to assess parent behaviors (negative Talk, Indirect and direct commands, labelled and unlabelled praise) and child behaviors (Negative talk, compliance, noncompliance)

  2. Conflict Tactics Scale

    Time frame: Baseline, End of Intervention (8 weeks later), 1 month after end of intervention (12 weeks later)

    This is a measure of conflict resolution and tactics used between the male Completed by the caregiver and the child's other parent. Scores range from "This has never happened to More than 20 times in the past month. The scale measures frequency of behaviors from zero to more than 20 times. Higher scores indicate a worse outcome.

  3. Parenting Alliance Inventory

    Time frame: Baseline, End of Intervention (8 weeks later), 1 month after end of intervention (12 weeks later)

    This is a measure of alignment in parenting practices. Answers range from strongly agree to strongly disagree on a five point scale. Scores range from 1-5, with lower scores indicating improvement.

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Florida International University

Other

Collaborators

  • Buffalo Prenatal Perinatal Network

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2022
Primary completion
2024
Study completion
2024
First posted
Mar 17, 2022
Registry last updated
Sep 5, 2024

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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