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.
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.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
496
The HERO Dads Program is a 4-week series of workshops for non-custodial fathers that focuses on improving parenting, offering job support, and financial counseling.
Montefiore Medical Center
The Bronx, New York, United States
Fatherhood Involvement
Fatherhood Involvement will be assessed using the Inventory of Fatherhood Involvement short form (IFI) questionnaire. The IFI is a 26-item self-report instrument that assesses indirect and direct father involvement using a 7- point Likert scale ranging from 0 (very poor) to 6 (excellent). This measure addresses the 3 main domains of father involvement: engagement, accessibility, and responsibility. Overall scores can therefore range from 0 to 156. Higher scores represent increased levels of engagement. Scores will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics. 2-sample t-test will be used to compare the changes in the IFI scores from Baseline to 6-month follow-up between the study arms.
Time frame: Change from Baseline to 6 months after intervention
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence will be assessed using the Assessing Emotions Scale. The Assessing Emotions Scale is a 33-item self-report inventory focusing on typical emotional intelligence. Participants provide responses using a 5-item Likert scale of measurement with values ranging from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 5 ("strongly agree"). Total scale scores are calculated by reverse coding items 5, 28, and 33 and then summing the responses across all items. The overall scoring range is 33-166, with higher scores indicating more characteristic emotional intelligence. Scores will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.
Time frame: Baseline
Quality of Co-Parenting Relationships
Quality of Co-Parenting Relationships will be evaluated using the Parenting Alliance Inventory (PAI). The PAI is a 20 item self-report instrument that assesses the degree to which parents believe that they have a sound working relationship with their child's other parent. Participants provide responses to the PAI using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("Strongly Disagree") to 5 ("Strongly Agree"), yielding an overall possible score of 20-100. Higher PAI scores are indicative of a stronger, more positive parenting alliance. Results will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.
Time frame: Baseline
Parent-Child Relationship Quality
Parent-Child Relationship Quality will be assessed using the Child-Parent Relationship Scale Short Form (CPRS-SF). The CPRS-SF is a 15-item self-report measure that assesses parents' perceptions of their relationship with their child, especially related to closeness and conflict. Items are rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 ("Definitely does not apply") to 5 ("Definitively applies"). Items 2, 4, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 comprise the Conflict subscale and measure the degree to which a parent feels that his or her relationship with a child is characterized by negativity. Items 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 15 comprise the Closeness subscale and measure the extent to which a parent feels that the relationship is characterized by warmth, affection, and open communication. Higher scores for each subscale are indicative of more Conflict or Closeness, respectively. A composite score is obtained by summing item responses for each subscale, yielding an overall possible scoring range of 15-75.
Time frame: Baseline
Skills/Knowledge Assessment (Skills/Knowledge Acquisition)
The Skills/Knowledge Assessment is an outcome measure that will be developed by program staff together with the local evaluator. This 14-item measure is a multiple-choice assessment using scenarios describing parent-child and co-parenting interactions to determine whether fathers have learned skills and techniques taught at workshops. This measure will be calculated by obtaining the percentage of correctly scored items. Higher scores indicate greater skill acquisition. Two versions of this assessment will be created to prevent practice effects. Given that this is a homegrown measure, to validate this measure the investigators will correlate the skill assessment scores with the Assessing Emotions Scale and assess whether relationship skill scores differ by key demographic and social economic factors. Results will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.
Time frame: Change from Baseline to 6 months after intervention
Childhood Trauma
Childhood Trauma will be assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire Short Form (CTQ-SF). The CTQ-SF is a 25-item measure of childhood trauma covering 5 trauma types: Emotional/Physical/Sexual Abuse, Emotional Neglect and Physical Neglect along with a separate Minimization/Denial scale. Participants respond to each item using a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ("Never true") to 5 ("Very often true"), yielding an overall possible score of 25-125 such that higher scores are indicative of increased childhood trauma. Seven of the items must be reverse-coded (i.e., 1=5, 2=4, 3=3, 4=2, 5=1) before summing. Results will be summarized by study arm using basic descriptive statistics.
Time frame: Baseline
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