Web-based Parenting Intervention for Mothers of Infants At-Risk for Maltreatment (Baby-Net)

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Parenting
• Interventions: Behavioral: Developmental Awareness Skills; Behavioral: Baby-Net

• Registration Number: NCT01862692
• Lead Sponsor: Oregon Research Institute

Brief Summary

This innovative interactive Internet-based parent education intervention will help serve to promote the social emotional development and communication skills of infants to decrease the chances of child maltreatment in low-income, culturally diverse, families.

Detailed Description

Parents of infants living in poverty are at significantly elevated risk of a host of detrimental outcomes, including the development of child behavior problems, neglect and abuse of children, child learning problems and parental substance abuse. Research has found that early interventions to improve parenting practices were effective to ameliorate these outcomes. Yet, there exist major obstacles to the effective delivery of mental health services, particularly in rural areas. The need of rural families for mental health services is reaching crisis proportions due to the dearth of trained professionals. In addition, the meteoric rise of Internet use has created a new avenue for people to communicate and share ideas. These two trends are helping fuel the demand for mental health services and on-line support.

Internet programs can be interactive and provide social support from peers and professionals. Through the use of recent advances in multimedia technology and software as well as the rise of computer networking via the Internet, there now exists an opportunity to provide such monitoring of outcomes and remote contact for rural locations. Prior developmental R34 research ("Infant Net") successfully adapted and pilot tested an existing empirically proven parenting program, for delivery via the Internet, enhanced with weekly professional contact. This research provided 40 mothers of infants 3.5 to 7 months (at enrollment) with a computer, computer camera, Internet connection, and technical training/support for 6 months to evaluate the digital translation. Mother-infant dyads were randomized to Experimental or Computer/Control conditions. Results found significant change with infant-behavioral and positive trends were demonstrated in parenting behaviors. Mothers rated the both computer program and interaction with coaches to be very high. These encouraging developmental research results provide a very good empirical base for a fully powered randomized control trial to test effectiveness.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2011-08
• Study First Submitted: 2013-05-01
• Study First Submitted QC: 2013-05-23
• Study First Posted: 2013-05-24
• Primary Completion: 2015-08
• Study Completion: 2015-08
• Status Verified: 2015-09
• Last Update Submitted: 2015-09-29
• Last Update Posted: 2015-10-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 222

Inclusion Criteria

• Female, 18+ years old
• Child age 3.5-7.5 months
• Eligible for Early Head Start
• Understand spoken English or Spanish

Exclusion Criteria

• History of severe drug use or psychopathology

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Developmental Awareness Skils	Developmental Awareness Skills	-
Baby-Net condition	Baby-Net	-

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The Landry Parent-Child Interaction Scales (Parent Behavior)	6 months post	The Landry Scales are designed to assess naturalistic parent-child interaction. The parent scales of interest in the current study relative to maternal responsiveness include ratings of maternal positive affect, warmth, flexibility, and positive verbal content. Relative to maternal negative behavior, scales of interest include ratings of maternal physical intrusiveness as well as verbal and affective negativity.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The Landry Parent-Child Interaction Scales (Infant Behavior)	6 months (post)	The Landry Parent-Child Interaction Scales, relative to directly observed maternal behavior, will also be used to assess infant functioning. Rating scales of interest in this regard are those assessing the infant behaviors of attention/arousal, warmth-seeking, and behavioral regulation. Ratings of infant behavior will be completed on the same mother-infant observational assessments as those used to assess maternal behavior at pre- and post-intervention

Trial Locations

Locations (2)

Oregon Research Institute; 🇺🇸 Eugene, Oregon, United States

University of Kansas Center for Research; 🇺🇸 Kansas City, Kansas, United States