The Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey, Inc. (PMCH) is implementing a fatherhood project with the goal of strengthening father-child engagement, improving economic stability, and improving healthy marriage/relationship skills among participants. FELLAS serves community-based fathers 18 years of age or older who reside in Essex County, New Jersey and have at least one child under the age of 24.
The program model has three components: to improve responsible parenting using 24/7 Dad, an evidence based curriculum; to improve healthy marriage/relationship skills using Couple Communication I, an evidence based relationship and marriage strengthening curriculum that includes home visits; and to improve economic stability using a comprehensive array of services designed to provide an employment assessment, strengthen basic technology skills, and strengthen pre-employment soft skills.
The Theory of Change the investigators will use in this project is the Health Belief Model (HBM). According to the HBM, individuals are most likely to make behavior changes when they believe that a problem is potentially severe, they are personally susceptible to the problem, the benefits to making change outweigh the challenges or risk, and they believe that they can, in fact, make the desired changes.
The four primary research questions deal with: 1) communication and empathy skills toward one's partner; 2) conflict resolution skills and associated behavior patterns; 3) financial management and economic stability; 4) positive effective parenting skills. The investigators have selected these research questions because the investigators believe, and the literature supports the position, that these factors are of major importance in becoming an actively engaged and responsible father.
The research evidence is clear. Children who do not have a responsible father in their lives suffer several negative outcomes when compared to children who do have a responsible father in their lives. Following the HBM, the approach the investigators will take in delivering the intervention will be to emphasize the importance of fatherhood engagement in the lives of their children and:
1. how the lack of father engagement can result in serious negative outcomes for their children relative to child development - and on into adulthood (severity);
2. if they are not personally, actively engaged in the lives of their children, then their children are also likely to experience serious negative outcomes (susceptibility);
3. though being an actively involved, responsible father is not easy, the results, both for their children and themselves will be worth the effort (benefits vs challenge);
4. becoming an actively involved, responsible father is a difficult task, but it is something the participants can do; and the FELLAS project is here to help (self-efficacy).
Evaluation activities include a self-report questionnaire administered (1) immediately prior to beginning the program (pretest), (2) immediately after completion of the program (posttest), and (3) six months after the posttest. Focus groups will also provide qualitative data concerning the effects of the program.
The investigators hypothesize that following the intervention, the participants will show improvement in:
(1) communication and empathy skills toward their partner; (2) conflict resolution skills and associated behavior patterns; (3) financial management and economic stability; (4) positive effective parenting scores.
