Creating positive interactions early in your child’s life, starting in pregnancy, can improve the wellbeing of you and your family.
We hope that parents will build a more connected relationship with each other and their baby by participating in a new group intervention program, based on the principles of co-parenting and reflective functioning.
- Co-parenting: the way parents are able to effectively work together as a team to parent their child.
- Reflective functioning: a person’s ability to understand their own thoughts and the thoughts of others, and how these thoughts can lead to different actions.
Previous research has found participating in group programs like these can reduce depression and anxiety in both parents, improve the couple’s relationship and improve child outcomes.
Who can participate?
We are looking for couples who have had no previous children and are expecting their first child. The mother must also be in her third trimester of pregnancy when the group is scheduled to begin. Participants must have a level of English that would allow them to complete all study questionnaires and participate in the group.
What does participation involve?
After completing some initial baseline questionnaires, you and your partner will be randomly allocated into one of two groups. Neither you nor the researcher can choose which group you go in.
Group One: You and your partner will participate in a group program, held in the Joondalup area, which will involve 8 x 2-3 hour sessions over 5 months, including;
- 4 x sessions delivered weekly during the third trimester of pregnancy, and
- 4 x sessions delivered weekly, with your baby, when he/she is between two and three months old.
You will both then be asked to complete the questionnaires again. At the end of all the sessions, you and your partner will be invited to participate in a focus group to share your experience. This will take around one hour and is optional.
Group Two: You and your partner will be invited to complete questionnaires (30-45 mins) at the beginning of the study, when your baby is between two- and three-months-old and for a third time roughly four weeks later.
Both groups will also be asked to record themselves speaking for five minutes (to be repeated three times) about your child or partner. Voice recordings will be transcribed by a member of the research team and then de-identified.
For more information or to participate in this research:
Download the Participant Information Brochure
Contact: Mia DePalma, Project Coordinator
email: mia.depalma@curtin.edu.au
Ph: 0420 402 310