Framing the work: A coparenting model for guiding infant mental health engagement with families.

When working with families of infants and toddlers, intentionally looking beyond dyadic child-parent relationship functioning to conceptualize the child's socioemotional adaptation within their broader family collective can enhance the likelihood that clinical gains will be supported and sustained. However, there has been little expert guidance regarding how best to frame infant-family mental health therapeutic encounters for the adults responsible for the child's care and upbringing in a manner that elevates their mindfulness about and their resolve to strengthen the impact of their coparenting collective. This article describes a new collaborative initiative organized by family-oriented infant mental health professionals across several different countries, all of whom bring expansive expertise assessing and working with coparenting and triangular family dynamics. The Collaborative's aims are to identify a means for framing initial infant mental health encounters and intakes with families with the goal of assessing and raising family consciousness about the relevance of coparenting. Initial points of convergence and growing points identified by the Collaborative for subsequent field study are addressed.

Cuando se trabaja con familias de infantes y niños pequeñitos, el mirar intencionalmente más allá del funcionamiento de la relación diádica niño-progenitor para conceptualizar la adaptación socioemocional del niño dentro de la amplitud del colectivo familiar puede mejorar la posibilidad de que los logros clínicos sean apoyados y mantenidos. Sin embargo, ha habido poca guía de expertos acerca de cómo enmarcar mejor los encuentros terapéuticos infante-familia de salud mental para los adultos que son responsables del cuidado y crianza del niño de una manera que se eleve su estado consciente acerca de y su determinación de reforzar el impacto del colectivo en el proceso de la crianza compartida. Este artículo describe una nueva iniciativa colaborativa organizada por profesionales de la salud mental infantil orientados hacia la familia en varios diferentes países, todos los cuales aportan su conocimiento amplio evaluando y trabajando con las dinámicas familiares de crianza compartida y triangular. Las metas de este esfuerzo Colaborativo son identificar un medio para enmarcar los encuentros y la proporción de salud mental infantil con familias que se proponen evaluar y crear consciencia familiar acerca de la relevancia de la crianza compartida. Se abordan los puntos iniciales de convergencia y puntos de crecimiento identificados por el esfuerzo Colaborativo para subsecuentes estudios en el campo.

En travaillant avec des familles de nourrissons et de petits enfants, le fait de regarder délibérément au- delà du fonctionnement de la relation dyadique enfant-parent afin de conceptualisation l'adaptation socio émotionnelle de l'enfant, au sein de leur collectif familial plus large, peut accroître la probabilité que les gains cliniques seront bien soutenus et prolongés. Cependant il y a eu peu de directive experte concernant la meilleure manière d'encadrer les rencontres thérapeutiques nourrisson-famille de santé mentale pour les adultes responsables du soin de l'enfant et de son éducation d'une manière qui élève la pleine conscience et la détermination qu'il y a à renforcer l'impact de leur coparentage collectif. Cet article décrit une nouvelle initiative collaborative organisée par des professionnels de la santé mentale du nourrisson centrés sur la famille au travers de plus pays différents, tous étant de grands experts évaluant et travaillant avec des dynamiques de coparentage et de famille triangulaire. Les buts de cette collaboration sont d'identifier un moyen d'encadrer des rencontres de santé mentale initiales et les apports des familles avec le but d'évaluer et d'améliorer la conscience de la famille quant à la pertinence du coparentage. Les premiers points de convergence et de développement identifiés par la collaboration pour des études sur le terrain à venir sont discutés.

Caregiving profiles of mothers in an economically disadvantaged sample from Turkey: An observational study.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the patterns of maternal sensitivity via structured and systematic observational methods among mothers from a disadvantaged community in Turkey. Background: Caregiving sensitivity is shaped by cultural parenting ethnotheories, and there is a need to examine in non-Western cultures to see its universal and culturally-specific features.Method: Ninety-eight mothers and their interactions with infants were videotaped during home-visits, and their caregiving behaviours were assessed via the Maternal Behaviour Q-Set.Results: Results of the Q-factor analysis revealed two distinct caregiving profiles. The first profile, 'sensitivity vs. insensitivity', describes mothers who were characterised by sensitive behaviours to their babies, and acceptance of their infant. Mothers in this group were more aware and responsive to their babies' needs and demands. The second profile, 'nonsynchronous vs. synchronous', describes mothers who showed noncontingent behaviours during interactions such as being unable to follow the pace of the infant or to respond to infants' needs on time.Conclusion: This study contributes to the literature by showing that mothers from Turkey can be grouped in terms of sensitivity similar to the previous studies, although the descriptive behaviours of sensitivity may vary.

Improvements in Unmarried African American Parents' Rapport, Communication, and Problem-Solving Following a Prenatal Coparenting Intervention.

This report examines effects of a coparenting intervention designed for and delivered to expectant unmarried African American mothers and fathers on observed interaction dynamics known to predict relationship adjustment. Twenty families took part in the six-session "Figuring It Out for the Child" (FIOC) dyadic intervention offered in a faith-based human services agency during the third trimester of the mother's pregnancy, and completed a postpartum booster session 1 month after the baby's arrival. Parent referrals for the FIOC program were received from a county Health Department and from OBGYNs and Pregnancy Centers in the targeted community. All intervention sessions were delivered by a trained male-female paraprofessional team whose fidelity to the FIOC manualized curriculum was independently evaluated by a team of trained analysts. At both the point of intake ("PRE") and again at an exit evaluation completed 3 months postpartum ("POST"), the mothers and fathers were videotaped as they completed two standardized "revealed differences" conflict discussions. Blinded videotapes of these sessions were evaluated using the System for Coding Interactions in Dyads. Analyses documented statistically significant improvements on 8 of 12 variables examined, with effect sizes ranging from moderate to large. Overall, 14 families demonstrated beneficial outcomes, 3 did not improve, and 3 showed some signs of decline from the point of intake. For most interaction processes, PRE to POST improvements were unrelated to degree of adherence the paraprofessional interventionists showed to the curriculum. However, better interventionist competence was related to decreases in partners' Coerciveness and Negativity and Conflict, and to smaller increases in partner Withdrawal. Implications of the work for development and delivery of community-based coparenting interventions for unmarried parents are discussed.

A Prenatal Coparenting Intervention With Unmarried Father-Mother Dyads: Fidelity of Intervention Delivery by Male-Female Community Mentor Teams.

BACKGROUND: Most prenatal preventive interventions for unmarried mothers do not integrate fathers or help the parents plan for the development of a functional coparenting alliance after the baby's arrival. Furthermore, properly trained professionals have only rarely examined the fidelity of these interventions. PURPOSE: This report examines whether experienced community interventionists (home visitors, health educators, fatherhood service personnel) with no formal couples' therapy training are capable of pairing together to deliver with adequate fidelity a manualized dyadic intervention designed for expectant unmarried mothers and fathers. METHODS: Three male and four female mentors (home visitors, health educators, fatherhood personnel) working in paired male-female co-mentor teams delivered a seven-session "Figuring It Out for the Child" curriculum (six prenatal sessions, one booster) to 14 multirisk, unmarried African American families (parent age ranging from 14 to 40). Parental well-being and views of fatherhood were assessed before the intervention and again 3 months after the baby's birth. Quality assurance analysts evaluated mentor fidelity (adherence to the curriculum, competence in engaging couples with specified curricular content) through a review of the transcripts and audiotapes from the sessions. Mentors also rated their own adherence. RESULTS: Although the mentors overestimated adherence, quality assurance analyst ratings found acceptable levels of adherence and competence, with no significant male-female differences in fidelity. Adherence and competence were marginally higher in sessions that required fewer direct couples' interventions. Parents reported satisfaction with the interventions and showed statistically significant improvement in the family dimensions of interest at 3-4 months posttreatment. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Findings support the wisdom of engaging men both as interventionists and as recipients of prenatal coparenting interventions-even in families where the parents are uncoupled and non-co-residential.