The Development and Pilot of a Technology-Based Intervention in the United States for Father’s Mental Health in the Perinatal Period

Abstract

Paternal mental health is increasingly recognized as an important public health issue, with about 10% of men experiencing depression perinatally. Paternal depression is associated with less responsive parenting, greater parenting stress, and suboptimal child development. In response to a lack of existing interventions that directly focus on fathers’ mental health in the United States, we developed and pilot tested the Fathers and Babies (FAB) intervention for use with partners of women enrolled in home visiting (HV) programs. After a review of the extant literature, FAB was developed with input from HV stakeholders and infant mental health consultants. FAB was subsequently pilot tested with 30 father-mother dyads, with mixed-method data collected from a subset of intervention participants to assess intervention feasibility and acceptability and guide intervention refinement. Five themes related to FAB content and delivery considerations emerged from the initial focus groups that were used to guide FAB development. Mixed-method data collected during the pilot study established that fathers receiving FAB reported its content appropriate and thought it was feasible to receive the intervention. Several recommendations for FAB revisions were also provided. FAB is an innovative intervention developed for fathers from contemporary family structures that was well-received during its pilot testing. Feasibility and acceptability data suggest that fathers have favorable opinions about intervention content and delivery, while also highlighting areas for future revisions of FAB.

Preventing Perinatal Depression: Cultural Adaptation of the Mothers and Babies Course in Kenya and Tanzania

“…The adapted MBC was overall feasible and acceptable as an intervention to address mental health for mothers during the critical early childhood period in Kenya and Tanzania. Our work in adapting and modifying the MBC in Kenya and Tanzania is consistent with previous work that has systematically documented the cultural and contextual adaptations of the MBC with different populations (e.g., Central American immigrant mothers in the United States [20], Tribal American mothers [21], and fathers [12,22]). Collectively, this body of work has found that the process of adaptation is culturally humble, iterative, and has the potential for adoption from the communities impacted.…”

Healing Together: A Narrative Review on How Psychiatric Treatment for Parental Depression Impacts Children

“…These findings provide many opportunities for intervention with depressed fathers. Given the success of home visiting programs for supporting mothers in the perinatal period, Hamil and colleagues [ 36 ] devised a Fathers and Babies (FAB) intervention to address their partners. The program is designed with the same cognitive behavioral therapy and attachment principles employed in the highly effective Mothers and Babies (MB) program for maternal postpartum depression prevention, as well as collected input from fathers, mothers, and home-visiting clinicians.…”

“…It is also particularly important to note that improvements in childhood internalizing symptoms may lag behind parental improvements in depression; in one study the gap in time of improvements seen in children after remission of maternal depression was approximately six months [ 20 ]. Several innovative programs have been developed, such as the FAB [ 36 ] and Mom Power [ 44 , 45 ], that may model how to deliver parenting skills and parental therapeutic interventions for depression, however, further modalities for a variety of clinical settings and family structures should be explored and developed. Given the potentially lifelong impact of parental depression on offspring, it is imperative to continue to develop programs that decrease barriers to care, such as by providing targeted time-limited treatment and/or treatment in a digital format [ 17 , 37 ].…”

Development of an Electronic Screening and Brief Intervention to Address Perinatal Substance Use in Home Visiting: Qualitative User-Centered Approach

“…Finally, the expansion of the e–SBI-HV to address SU in partners and other family members is also a critical area of need. The engagement of fathers is a priority in HV research and practice [ 100 ] and enhancements to HV to address mental health in fathers have recently been developed [ 101 ].…”

“…RenderX partners and other family members is also a critical area of need. The engagement of fathers is a priority in HV research and practice [100] and enhancements to HV to address mental health in fathers have recently been developed [101]. The next step in this research is to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of the e-SBI-HV.…”