The Young Parenthood Study - Milwaukee

The Young Parenthood Study - Milwaukee

Evaluation of the Young Parenthood Program: A Preventive Intervention for Pregnant Adolescents and Their Co-Parenting Partners

Background

The transition to parenthood is a difficult phase in life for many couples but especially difficult for adolescent couples who are learning to be parents at the same time that they face the challenges of adolescence (1-2).  The Young Parenthood Program (YPP) (3) is a flexible 10-14 week preventive-intervention couples-focused program designed to help pregnant adolescents and their partners develop the interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive co-parenting and parenting practices and to prevent child abuse/dysfunctional parenting.  The approach focuses on the couple rather than the individual parent to strengthen the co-parenting relationship and improve communication skills, regardless of whether the couple stays together romantically.  The program also provides case management services to assist couples in areas of potential need, including education, employment, and child care.  The YPP program is flexible, working with each individual couple in the initial sessions to custom-fit the intervention to their particular needs and resources.  We believe tailoring the program to address each couple’s particular needs will improve the level of engagement.

Purpose

This study is designed to test the Young Parenthood Program (YPP).  Our primary hypothesis is that YPP participants will be more warmly engaged with each other and function more positively as parents than participants in the control group. 

Population

Approximately 300 couples will be invited to participate in the study.  For pregnant adolescents to be eligible for the study, they must meet the following criteria:

1. Both the biological mother & father must be willing to participate at the first interview
2. Expectant mother must be 14-18 years old
3. Expectant father must be at least 14 years and < 5 years older than the expectant mother
4. Expectant mother must be ≤ 26 weeks pregnant at time of recruitment
5. Baby must be the pregnant adolescent’s first child

Study Activities

Once enrolled, pregnant adolescents and expectant fathers will be interviewed and will complete questionnaires on risk and protective factors related to co-parenting and parenting. Couples are then randomly assigned to one of the following groups:

1. Control Group:  receiving “treatment as usual” through their prenatal provider.
2. YPP Group:  receiving both “treatment as usual”, co-parenting counseling and case management services.  Follow-up research interviews will occur to assess initial adjustment to parenthood, quality of the co-parenting and parent-infant relationship, health of the adolescent, birthing process and outcome, the infant’s health, post-birth contraceptive use (fathers & mothers), and educational status of mother.  Each couple’s participation in the study will last up to 2 years after the baby is born.

Timeline

September 2010 – September 2015 

Funding and Support

This project is funded by a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs and Center for Disease Control.

In addition, the MYPS study is being supported by the Center for Urban Population Health, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Addiction and Behavioral Health Research, and the UW-Milwaukee School of Public Health. 

Program Staff 

Paul Florsheim, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Center for Addiction and Behavioral Health Research, Center for Urban Population Health, licensed psychologist

Sheri Johnson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Medical College of Wisconsin and the Center for Advancement of Underserved Children, licensed psychologist

Trina C. Salm Ward, M.S.W., Research Program Manager

Megan Howard, M.A., Project Coordinator, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Amy Kirby, M.S.W., L.C.S.W., Lead Therapist, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Laura Ramos, B.A., Care Manager, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Research Assistants from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Melissa Hernandez
• Pablo Navarro
• Rachel Reinders

Key Partners

Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare

Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital

Sixteenth Street Community Health Center

Aurora Sinai Hospital

Medical College of Wisconsin

References

1. Florsheim, P. and McArthur, L. (2009). An Interpersonal Approach to Attachment and Change. In J. Obegi and E. Berant, P. (eds.). Attachment Theory and Research in Clinical Work with Adults (pp. 379-409). The Guilford Press.
2. Florsheim, P. et al. (2003). Adjustment to parenthood among young African American and Latino couples: Relational predictors of risk for parental dysfunction. Journal of Family Psychology, 17, 65-79.
3. Florsheim, P., McArthur, L., Varela, A., Hudak, C. Gomez, Y., Heavin, S., Burrow-Sanchez, J. (April, 2009) The Young Parenthood Program: Preventing Intimate Partner Violence among Adolescent Mothers and their Partners. Biennial Meeting the Society for Research on Child Development. Denver, CO.
4. Florsheim, P. & Moore, D. (in press). Young fathers and the transition to parenthood: An interpersonal analysis of paternal outcomes.  Chapter to appear in P. Kerig, M. Shultz & S. Hauser (Eds) Adolescence and beyond: family processes and development. Oxford University Press.
5. Florsheim, P., McArthur, L., Hudak, C., Heavin, S. & Burrow-Sanchez, J. (2011) The Young Parenthood Program: A co-parenting counseling program for pregnant adolescents and young expectant fathers. Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy 
6. Ngu, L. & Florsheim, P. (in press). The Development of Relational Competence among Young High-risk Fathers across the Transition to Parenthood. Family Process.