Nurturing Dads and Partners: Findings from a Pilot Study of a Co-Parent Inclusive Fatherhood Intervention

Background and Purpose: The Nurturing Dads and Partners (NDAP) intervention integrates two evidence-supported interventions: the Nurturing Fathers Program (Perlman, 1998, 2021) and the Dads Matter-Home Visiting Program (HV) (Bellamy et al., 2021) to leverage both peer and co-parenting support to promote healthy relationships and responsible parenting. The NDAP program builds fathers’ skills and family protective factors including parental resilience, social connections, and knowledge of parenting and child development. NDAP also incorporates cultivating empathy and improving communication with children and co-parents. This presentation will describe findings from a mixed-methods pilot study of NDAP funded through a Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Grant.

Methods: Data for the pilot study were collected from 4 pilot sites across Colorado (two urban and two rural). The pilot study aimed to understand further adaptations needed to integrate Dads Matter-Home Visiting into Nurturing Fathers programming, the feasibility and acceptability of NDAP, and preliminary outcomes. The qualitative data sources for the pilot study included notes from the NDAP training sessions and monthly consultation calls offered to program facilitators. After facilitators delivered NDAP, evaluators also conducted a focus group and interviews with program facilitators (n=5), and a focus group and interviews with NDAP father participants (n = 11). For qualitative analyses, evaluators conducted first- and second-cycle coding using qualitative software. Quantitative data were collected through fidelity forms submitted by facilitators (n = 70 ), in-session feedback forms completed by fathers (n = 47), and entry and exit evaluation surveys completed by fathers (n = 12). Quantitative data analyses were descriptive in nature due to the small sample size and exploratory nature of the study.

Results: Qualitative results suggested that developers could adapt NDAP further by including additional “bridging content” to better connect the two interventions and add content on fathering, substance abuse, and engaging co-parents. Both qualitative and quantitative results indicated that facilitators and fathers found NDAP to be feasible and acceptable and suggested that they experienced positive outcomes. For example, fathers were highly satisfied with co-parenting sessions (M = 4.70, SD = 0.51) and fatherhood group sessions (M = 4.79, SD = 0.55 where 1 = Extremely dissatisfied; 5 = Extremely satisfied). Qualitative findings from fathers and facilitators indicated that NDAP participants experienced: 1) improved relationships with their partners and children, and 2) formed new supportive relationships with other fathers in the group and with facilitators. Some of the fathers stayed involved in the program in a mentoring capacity and many were instrumental in recruiting other fathers to the program.

Conclusion: NDAP is a promising new intervention that leverages advantages of both co-parenting support and peer support for fathers. The pilot results point to both improvements in the intervention as well as generally positive feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes. The intervention has been further adapted based on these findings and is currently being tested in a multisite quasi-experimental trial.