Randomized Controlled Trial of an Adapted Evidence-Based Coaching Program for Fathers and their Young Children in the Context of Home Visiting

Abstract: There is now overwhelming consensus that fathers’ influences on children’s development begin before birth and continue throughout the lifespan, with the early childhood period representing a particularly opportune time for programs to engage fathers. Studies of low-income fathers have found that warm and responsive interactions between fathers and their young children uniquely contribute to children’s social, emotional, and other skills, even after controlling for mothers’ parenting contributions (Amodia-Bidakowska et al., 2020; Mills-Koonce et al., 2015; Shannon et al., 2002). Early childhood is also the developmental period in which fathers across family structures and socioeconomic statuses are most likely to be involved in their children’s lives (Carlson & McLanahan, 2010). This suggests a window of opportunity for supporting fathers during children’s earliest years, which may help shape fathers’ involvement and relationships with their children over the lifespan. Despite this growing evidence, early childhood programs continue to focus largely on mother-child interactions, few interventions for low-income fathers have focused on parenting skills, and fewer still have focused on contingent responsiveness. The limited number of rigorous evaluations of fathering programs means we also lack substantial evidence on the causal links between participation in such programs and changes in father and child outcomes (Osborn, 2014). We aim to address these gaps by conducting a randomized controlled trial of a 6-week video coaching program, Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FINDF), with fathers and their young children. FINDF is delivered through flexible home visits, targets warm and responsive father-child interactions, and uses video recordings to emphasize each father’s parenting strengths in the context of everyday caretaking moments. The sample will comprise of 200 racially and ethnically diverse fathers and their children ages 12-36 months whose families are enrolled in our community partner’s Early Head Start and related early childhood programs. Father-child pairs will be randomized to FINDF or a waitlist control group. Assessments comparing the two groups will occur at baseline, end of program, and 6 months post-program. We propose the following aims: 1) evaluate the main impacts of FINDF on the primary program target (i.e., fathers’ supportive parenting) and related child and parent outcomes (i.e., children’s behavior problems, children’s social-emotional competence, fathers’ parenting stress, fathers’ involvement, and father identity), 2) identify mechanisms of FINDF’s intervention effects, and 3) examine variation by select child, father, and program measures. Together, these aims will test the effectiveness of FINDF as well as how, for whom, and under what conditions FINDF works best or least. This will be one of the first large-scale randomized controlled trials focused on evaluating the impacts and underlying theory of a nurturing fathering program and builds upon promising findings from two preliminary evaluations of FINDF.