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Published on: February 5, 2019
A non-randomized controlled study to assess the impact of the "Appui Parental", an early and intensive support
Frédérick Russet1, Virginie Maurice2, Marie-Christine Picot3
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, CHRU of Montpellier, St-Eloi University Hospital, Montpellier, France; Centre de recherche en épidémiologie et santé des populations (CESP), U1018, Inserm, University Paris-Saclay, Villejuif, France.
Insights
This study evaluates the "Appui Parental" program, an intensive home visit intervention for vulnerable families. It assesses the program's impact on child development, parental well-being, and the mother-child relationship, providing data for potential generalization.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Parental Support Programs
- Public Health Interventions
Background:
- Early home visits aim to strengthen parent-child bonds and prevent developmental issues.
- The "Appui Parental" program offers intensive support to vulnerable families via nursery nurses.
- Objective evaluation is needed before expanding the "Appui Parental" program.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the impact of the "Appui Parental" program on child symptom changes.
- To evaluate effects on mother-child interactions, parental competence, and caregiver mental health.
- To assess the alliance with nursery nurses and impacts on out-of-home placements and nurse stress.
Main Methods:
- Non-randomized prospective multicentre study comparing 44 intervention families with 44 control families.
- Participants include families with children aged one to 20 months.
- Assessments of child, parents, interaction, nurse-mother alliance, and nurse stress at 1 and 18 months.
Main Results:
- Data collection and analysis are ongoing.
- Comparisons between the intervention and control groups will be performed.
Conclusions:
- The study will provide objective data for public authorities on the "Appui Parental" program's effectiveness.
- Findings will inform decisions regarding program generalization or necessary modifications.
- Results will guide professionals on the value of early, intensive parental support through home visits.
Introduction:
Early home visit programmes have been developed to help parents build an adequate relationship with their baby and to prevent child developmental delays and affective disorders. The "Appui Parental" programme is an intervention carried out by nursery nurses to provide intensive parental support to vulnerable families. Before extending this programme, it seemed necessary to evaluate its impact objectively.
Objectives:
The main aim is to determine the impact of the "Appui Parental" programme on the change in the child's symptoms. The secondary objectives are to evaluate its effects on mother-child interactions, self-assessed parental competence, perception of social support, primary caregiver's anxiety-depression symptoms, alliance with the nursery nurse, frequency of out-of-home placements, and nursery nurses' stress.
Method:
This non-randomized prospective multicentre study would include 44 families who receive the "Appui Parental" intervention for a one to 20-month-old child (intervention group) and 44 families with the same vulnerability criteria who receive care as usual by the maternal and child protection services (control group). The child, parents, mother-child interaction, nursery nurse-mother alliance, and nursery nurse's stress will be assessed at month one and month 18 after inclusion. Comparisons between groups will be performed.
Conclusion:
This study should provide the public authorities with objective data on this programme's impact and allow them to pursue its generalization. For professionals, the study should confirm the interest in close early parental support through home visits or should lead to rethinking some aspects of the programme.
