New at Parenting Study

Overview

This study examines whether a brief counseling intervention provided to parents virtually in the first six months after having their baby is able to reduce and prevent the development of depression symptoms, anxiety, and stress. It also explores whether parents' confidence increases over time and whether they feel more support by the end of the intervention. The study will compare a group of parents who receive the intervention from trained graduate students in clinical psychology with a group of parents who do not receive the intervention. Select parents will also be interviewed to understand their experiences of new parenting and to help explain the research findings of the study.

The primary purpose of this pilot study is to examine the impact of receiving regularly scheduled phone counseling services delivered by advanced, trained clinical psychology doctoral students during the first six months of parenthood, for low-risk first-time parents. This study will examine whether parents who receive scheduled phone counseling services delivered through brief therapy techniques demonstrate a greater change from pregnancy to six months postpartum in their anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, self-efficacy/parenting confidence, stress, and social support when compared to a matched control group of parents who do not receive regularly scheduled phone calls. A secondary purpose of this study is to qualitatively explore the experience of parents who undergo the initial transition to parenthood; that is, what are the common themes requiring support that emerge with respect to the transition to parenthood? Additionally, the study aims to identify the acceptability and utility of using a phone-based counseling service for new parents and to elicit feedback about potential modifications that can be made to increase the positive impact of the service in the future.