Family Foundations:Promotion of Coparenting at the Transition to Parenthood

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Main Focus:

 

  1. Overview: Family Foundations is a series of participatory, psycho-educational classes for expectant parents.
  2. Goals: The innovative short-term goal of the program is to promote positive coparenting (i.e. the way that parents support each other and coordinate parenting efforts). The curriculum also covers temperament, parenting, and promotion of secure attachment. Through these targets, the ultimate goals are to:
    -Decrease postpartum depression, increase parental self-efficacy
    -Improve parenting sensitivity/warmth, decrease parenting negativitiy 
    -Foster positive couple relationship
    -Foster positive child self-regulation and adjustment
  3. consists of four class meetings before birth, and four classes after birth to reinforce material and help parents adapt material to their own situation.  The classes are conducted by a male/female co-leader team.   Homework consists of written and communication exercises, and watching brief video segments.  Booster sessions available for use when the child is two years old focus on limit setting and family relationships.
  4. Positive outcomes: through NIH-funded randomized trials the program showed the greatest benefits to those families in which parents had lower education or fathers had lower levels of emotional security in close relationships.