Stepping Up 4 Your Child

NCT02843113 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 15.1258
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,266
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 6

Brief Summary

Through Stepping Up 4 Your Child, non-custodial fathers will be provided with a comprehensive, solution-oriented program featuring group based parent education and individualized case management to help them achieve financial independence, increase their parenting skills, and develop a co-parenting alliance.

Conditions

Parenting Education Curriculum; Parenting Education Curriculum + Case Management; Waiting List Control

Keywords

single father; parenting behavior

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Change in Fathering Knowledge and Skills.

  Fathering knowledge and skills will be measured using the 24/7 Dad Fathering Skills Survey (National Fatherhood Initiative, 2010). This survey has 25 items that are multiple choice response questions. This survey comes with the 24/7 Dad curriculum packet. Given that this survey is a measure of fathering knowledge and not a standardized scale, no reliability data are available.

  immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later

• Change in Fathers' Parenting Behavior.

  Fathers' reported parenting behavior will be measured using the Index of Father Involvement (Hawkins et al., 2002). This measure has 9 factors loaded as subscales designed to tap direct and indirect forms of involvement and a total of 26 items. All items are measured on a 5 point scale ranging from A (excellent) to F (failing). The measure has a reported reliability/internal consistency score of .69

  immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later

• Change in Child Support Compliance.

  These payment data will be obtained via reports from the Kentucky Office of Child Support Enforcement.

  immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later

• Change in Co-Parenting Relationship Quality.

  Co-Parenting Relationship Quality. Co-parenting relationship quality will be measured using the Co-parenting Questionnaire (CQ, Margolis, Gordis, \& John, 2001). This measure is a 14-item self-report instrument examining: 1) the amount of conflict between parents surrounding parenting issues, 2) cooperation as the extent to which mothers and fathers support, value, and respect each other as parents and the degree to which they ease one another's parenting burden, and 3) triangulation, the extent to which parents distort parent-child boundaries by attempting to form a coalition with the child that undermines or excludes the other parent. The 14 items form a three factor structure and have good internal consistency with alphas for the 3 factors and the total scale ranging from .69 to .87.

  immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Change in Conflict Resolution Skills.

  immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later

• Change in Communication Skills.

  immediate after intervention, at 3 months later and at 6 months later

Study Arms (3)

4 Your Child Program

EXPERIMENTAL

Program integrates the provision of responsible parenting, economic stability, and relationship education services to fathers at risk for paternal disengagement.

Behavioral: 4 Your Child Program

4 Your Child + Case Management

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants assigned to treatment group that includes case management will receive an initial assessment to determine their strengths and needs. The participant will then work collaboratively with their case manager to connect to community resources to meet his needs. To do so, the case manager will meet with the participant using the following schedule: Months 1-2: intervention in the form of weekly face-to-face meeting with a case manager, plus a weekly phone call from a case manager; Months 3-4: intervention in the form of face-to-face meeting every other week, plus a weekly phone call; Months 5-6: intervention in the form of face-to-face meeting once a month, plus a weekly phone call.

Behavioral: 4 Your Child Program

Waiting list control

NO INTERVENTION

Individuals who are randomly assigned to this condition will receive no treatment for a period of months in parallel with the experimental intervention conditions. Data will be gathered from them, and they will be randomly assigned to a treatment condition when possible.

Interventions

4 Your Child Program BEHAVIORAL

Integrates the provision of responsible parenting, economic stability, and relationship education services to fathers at risk for paternal disengagement.

4 Your Child + Case Management; 4 Your Child Program

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 16 Years - 105 Years
• Sex: male
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• non-custodial father AND
• age 16-24 OR
• age 24 up + low income OR
• age 24 up + child support payment delinquent

You may not qualify if:

• female
• custodial father
• male but not a father
• younger than age 16

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Louisville: lead
• Kentucky Cabinet for Health & Family Services: collaborator

Study Sites (6)

Unknown Facility

Elizabethtown, Kentucky, 42701, United States

Location

University of Louisville

Louisville, Kentucky, 40292, United States

Location

Unknown Facility

Owensboro, Kentucky, 42302, United States

Location

Unknown Facility

Owenton, Kentucky, 40359, United States

Location

Unknown Facility

Paducah, Kentucky, 42003, United States

Location

Unknown Facility

Sandy Hook, Kentucky, 41171, United States

Location

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: July 7, 2016
• First Posted: July 25, 2016
• Study Start: July 1, 2016
• Primary Completion: December 30, 2020
• Study Completion: December 30, 2020
• Last Updated: July 28, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-07

Locations

US (6)