Clinical Research Directory

A Regional Partnership to Improve Outcomes Through Fatherhood Engagement

Montefiore will engage fathers in families at risk of substance misuse in the Bronx and neighboring communities. Families will be referred from Bronx and neighboring community-based child welfare systems, substance use disorder (SUD) treatment providers, and medical providers if identified at risk of substance use concerns and will be randomly assigned to receive services as usual as part of the comparison group, or to receive enhanced services as part of the program group. Enhanced services include: (1) Motivational Enhancement; (2) referral to Healthy, Empowered, Resilient, and Open (HERO) Dads fatherhood engagement program; (3) Contingency Management; and (4) Case Management.

A Male Caregiver Adaptation Study of the Connecting and Reflecting Experience Parenting Program

Male caregivers play a critical role in children's emotional development, yet they are often underrepresented in parenting interventions and may experience unique barriers to emotional engagement and support. This study will evaluate whether a 12-session parenting group therapy program is feasible, acceptable, and appropriate for male-identifying caregivers of children and adolescents receiving mental health services. The intervention being studied is the Connecting and Reflecting Experience (CARE) parenting program, a mentalizing-focused group therapy designed to strengthen caregivers' ability to reflect on their own and their child's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. CARE has demonstrated promise in improving parental reflective functioning, reducing parenting stress, and enhancing parent-child relationships in prior studies, but has not yet been evaluated in a group composed exclusively of male-identifying caregivers. Participants will take part in a 12-session weekly CARE group delivered via telehealth, with each session lasting one hour. Participants will also be asked to complete brief self-report surveys before, during, and after participation in the group. The purpose of the study is to inform future intervention development and determine whether CARE is a useful intervention for groups of male caregivers.

Group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Paternal Perinatal Depression

The purpose of this pilot randomized controlled trial is to assess the feasibility of offering a 9-week group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT; a type of talking therapy) led by a psychiatrist and public health nurse to fathers and non-birthing parents who identify as fathers or fathers-to-be (have a partner who is expecting) with perinatal depression. Fathers or fathers-to-be living in Ontario who have depression symptoms while their partner has been pregnant and/or during the first 18 months of their child's life will be assigned with a 50/50 chance (like flipping a coin) to receive online group CBT in addition to usual care, or to receive usual care only.

text4FATHER R21: Social Media - Efficacy Trial

This project will be the first to examine the efficacy of a text messaging intervention designed to recruit first-time fathers-to-be using social media across the U.S. to become involved during pregnancy through two months of postnatal age to support infant, mother, and father well-being.

Validation of the French Version of the Perinatal Assessment of Paternal Affectivity (PAPA)

The transition to parenthood is a critical period for both the woman and her partner, and this can affect the mental health of the parents. Like mothers, fathers are at risk of stress, anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder during the perinatal period. Existing screening or diagnostic tools have been developed on the basis of traditional depressive symptoms expressed by women. However, the manifestations of perinatal mental disorders appear to be different in men. It is therefore essential to develop tools that are sensitive and specific to both gender and the perinatal period in order to increase the sensitivity and specificity of screening for fathers. In France, to the best of the knowledge of the investigators, there is no validated tool in French to assess paternal psychological disorders, either prenatally or postnatally. Baldoni et al. had validated a brief self-report questionnaire, the " Perinatal Assessment of Paternal Affectivity " (PAPA), to screen for perinatal signs and symptoms of paternal affective disorder, using a gender-sensitive approach. The aim of this study is to cross-cultural adapt the PAPA in French and to evaluate its psychometric properties. This validation of the French-PAPA would provide a simple tool, easy to use in everyday practice, to detect any signs or symptoms of paternal psychopathological distress in the pre- and postnatal period.

Local Evaluation of the Saint Francis Ministries Fatherhood FIRE Program

This study is the local process and impact evaluation for Saint Francis Ministries' Fatherhood FIRE Program.

The Effect of Kangaroo Father Care Transport on Preterm Infants

This study was planned to investigate the effect of paternal kangaroo care and transport on physiologic parameters, anxiety and paternal attachment in preterm infants.