TRUE Dads: Evaluation of an Intervention Focusing on Father Involvement, Co-parenting, and Employment

Evaluation of the TRUE Dads Intervention

With an emphasis on 12 3-hour group workshops, the TRUE Dads fatherhood intervention program focuses on establishing or strengthening three of men's key roles in the family: 1) their role as providers, through fostering employment and economic self-sufficiency, 2) their role as fathers, in building and maintaining positive engagement with their children, and 3) their role in having and keeping a positive relationship with their co-parenting partner (wife, intimate partner, or other co-parent). The study is a randomized clinical trial that compares participants in a program track with participants a study track (no treatment control group) over a one-year period.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Father-Child Relations
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: TRUE Dads

Detailed Description

Interventions to strengthen men's roles as providers, as fathers, and as co-parents have typically been addressed in separate intervention and research silos. The TRUE Dads program proposes a unique integration of employment, fathering, and co-parenting services, with the overarching goal of strengthening fathers and the family unit by: 1) increasing fathers' economic stability and self-sufficiency, 2) enhancing the quantity and quality of father's engagement with their children, 3) improving the quality of the collaborative relationship between fathers and mothers or men and their co-parenting partners, 4) improving the relationship quality of fathers in their intimate partner relationships (with the co-parent or new partner), and 5) positively affecting children's behavior and development.

Twelve hundred fathers will be recruited for the study. After an initial interview of the fathers and their co-parenting partners, who will complete Baseline survey, 720 of the 1,200 fathers and co-parents will be assigned to the TRUE Dads intervention (Program track), and 480 to a no-treatment control condition (Study track). Participants will be informed that the program consists of participation in a series of 12 three-hour meetings. Those 12 sessions include six meetings covering a core fatherhood curriculum, attended with the co-parent, combined with one of three intensives selected by the father: a) six sessions with an emphasis on employment, b) six sessions with an emphasis on building healthy romantic relationships with the co-parent, or c) six sessions with an emphasis on parenting with a participating co-parent. Participants in the Program track may be referred for additional employment, mental health, or other needed services. Both program and control participants (fathers and co-parents) will fill out a Follow-up survey one year from their entrances into the study.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 2084
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Oklahoma
    • Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, 73104
      • It's My Community Initiative

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion criteria:

This study begins with a focus on fathers. We are initially recruiting men who:

• Are 18 or older
• Are residing in Oklahoma County/Metro
• Are expecting a child or already have a child age (0-12), with an emphasis on 0-6,
• Have spent time with the child the prior month (or with mother if expecting)
• Are English-speaking. Have not previously participated in the Family Expectations program offered by Public Strategies (Oklahoma) in the last 3 years

Exclusion criteria:

Because this an intervention for fathers that attempts to improve the relationship with the fathers' co-parent, we are accepting fathers only if the co-parent agrees to attend at least the first 6 workshops. In pilot trials, almost all the co-parents are women (wives, intimate partners, grandmothers), but a few are men (the fathers' father, brother, intimate partner)

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Exclusion Criteria:

• Either or both partners have taken part in the Family Expectations project during the past three years, located in the same building, run by Public Strategies

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: NONE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: TRUE Dads program track; In the TRUE Dads program, fathers and co-parents begin with a Core workshop meeting weekly for 6 weeks. After a check-in, a male-female group leader team focuses on a single topic that represents one of the three main goals of the project as a whole: Co-parenting relationships, Parenting, or Employment and financial stability. From 10 to 18 couples, seated at small tables in a large room, hear mini-lectures, watch videos, and engage in interactive exercises. Fathers then choose to attend one of three intensive workshops focused on couple relationships OR parenting OR economic self-sufficiency meeting 3 hours per week for the next 6 weeks. On an as-needed basis, fathers may be referred for employment programs and fathers and co-parents may be referred for mental health or other services.	Behavioral: TRUE Dads; The TRUE Dads intervention consists of a set of 12 3-hour workshops that focus on enhancing fathers' role as co-parent, parent, and provider
NO_INTERVENTION: Control condition study track; Participants (fathers and co-parents) complete intake interview and fill out Baseline survey. They fill out follow-up survey one year later

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Father/Co-parent relationship quality	This outcome will be measured by a composite of self-report survey items filled out by fathers and co-parents, assessing perceptions of co-parent relationship quality, communication and conflict management abilities. High scores indicate relationship distress.	Change or maintenance of positive behavior relative to the control group will be assessed at Baseline and 1 year post Baseline.
Father involvement	This outcome will be measured by a composite of self-report survey items filled out by both fathers and co-parents, assessing fathers' involvement in childcare tasks, time spent in specific activities with target child, parenting styles, and parenting behaviors. High scores indicate positive father involvement	Change or maintenance of positive behavior relative to the control group will be assessed at Baseline and 1 year post Baseline.
Child well-being	This outcome will be measured by a composite of self-report survey items filled out by fathers and co-parents, assessing child temperament, externalizing behavior problems (aggression, hyperactivity) and internalizing behavior problems (anxiety, depression, shy/withdrawn behavior). High scores indicate more behavior problems.	Change or maintenance of positive behavior relative to the control group will be assessed at Baseline and 1 year post Baseline.
Economic Self-sufficiency	This outcome will be measured by a composite of self-report survey items filled out by fathers and co-parents, assessing employment status, income, behaviors to find a job or acquire new job skills. High scores indicate more positive economic achievements and more positive attitudes	Change or maintenance of positive behavior relative to the control group will be assessed at Baseline and 1 year post Baseline.
Parents adjustment and distress	This outcome will be measured by a composite of self-report measures of symptoms of depression (Center for Epidemiological Studies in Depression, CES-D) and anxiety (from the Brief Symptom Inventory). High scores indicate personal distress.	change or maintenance of positive behavior relative to the control group will be assessed at Baseline and 1 year post Baseline.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: It's My Community Initiative
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Philip A. Cowan, PhD, It's My Community Initiative

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Cowan PA, Cowan CP, Gillette PF. TRUE Dads: The impact of a couples-based fatherhood intervention on family relationships, child outcomes, and economic self-sufficiency. Fam Process. 2022 Sep;61(3):1021-1044. doi: 10.1111/famp.12748. Epub 2022 Jan 10.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): July 1, 2017
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): June 30, 2020
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): June 30, 2020

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 28, 2017
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 2, 2017
• First Posted (ACTUAL): March 3, 2017

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): August 26, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 24, 2020
• Last Verified: August 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Marital relationship
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2016-08-9047

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No