It is both timely and important to invest in interventions that can improve healthy emotional co-regulation. It is proposed to evaluate the feasibility and limited efficacy of an adapted, brief, multimodal intervention: ECoFam (Emotional connection and Co-regulation for Families). Evidence from the US suggests intervention effects on maternal and infant outcomes that are large in effect size (i.e., Cohen's d \>0.6 for increasing emotional connection and decreasing maternal depressive symptoms) (21-23). The study results will directly translate evidence into practice and, if found feasible, allow rapid scaling-up. Objectives: 1. Build capacity for implementation of a novel diagnostic screening tool for emotional co-regulation, the uWECS, as part of clinical follow-up for mother-infant dyads with high fibrobesity risk in Finland. 2. Test the feasibility and limited efficacy of the brief, multimodal ECoFam intervention to foster healthy emotional co-regulation between mothers with PCOS and obesity and their infants.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
DOUBLE
Enrollment
40
Mother-infant dyads randomized into the intervention group receive four personal coaching sessions to facilitate emotional connection via multisensory channels including comfort touch and communication of face-to-face affect during holding time.
Oulu University Hospital
Oulu, Finland
RECRUITINGUniversal Welch Emotional Connection Screen (uWECS)
Emotional connection evaluated with the uWECS
Time frame: From enrollment to the end of intervention and follow-up at 4 months
Mothers' mental health problems
Mothers' mental health problems are assessed with a range of standardized questionnaires using RedCap; higher scores mean worse outcomes.
Time frame: From enrollment to end of intervention and follow-up 4 months
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