Helping Fathers FIND Their Strengths: An Evaluation of the Filming Interactions to Nurture Development Program

• In Event: 54.062 - Parents and Family Involvement in Early Childhood

Abstract

In spite of half a century of early childhood programs that recognize the critical roles of parents, fathers have been largely underrepresented in these efforts. In this study, we describe the development and initial evaluation of a video-coaching program for low-income fathers, Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND-F). FIND-F builds upon the existing literature by directly targeting fathers’ responsive parenting through in-home coaching based on videos of naturally occurring interactions. After 6 weeks of FIND-F, fathers’ positive parenting practices significantly increased (Cohen’s d=.90*) and all fathers reported decreases in parenting stress (d=-1.31**). Fathers who had experienced high levels of childhood adversity also showed gains in psychological (d=1.20*) and behavioral involvement (d=.96**) and decreases in their children’s behavior problems (d=-1.80*).

Authors

• Holly Schindler, University of Washington - Seattle

• Phil Fisher

• Cindy Ola, University of Washington - Seattle