Cowan Carolyn Pape, Cowan Philip A, Pruett Marsha Kline, Pruett Kyle
University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Fam Process. 2007 Mar;46(1):109-21. doi: 10.1111/j.1545-5300.2006.00195.x.
In the context of current concern about levels of marital distress, family violence, and divorce, the SFI study is evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention to facilitate the positive involvement of low-income Mexican American and European American fathers with their children, in part by strengthening the men's relationships with their children's mothers. The study design involves a randomized clinical trial that includes assignment to a 16-week couples group, a 16-week fathers group, or a single-session control group. Couples in both group interventions and the control condition include partners who are married, cohabiting, and living separately but raising a young child together. This article presents the rationale, design, and intervention approach to father involvement for families whose relationships are at risk because of the hardships of their lives, many of whom are manifesting some degree of individual or relationship distress. We present preliminary impressions and qualitative findings based on our experience with 257 families who completed the pretest, and the first 160 who completed one postintervention assessment 9 months after entering the study. Discussion centers on what we have learned and questions that remain to be answered in mounting a multisite preventive intervention to strengthen relationships in low-income families.
在当前人们对婚姻困扰、家庭暴力和离婚问题高度关注的背景下，西班牙裔家庭联合会（SFI）的这项研究正在评估一项干预措施的效果，该措施旨在促进低收入墨西哥裔美国人和欧裔美国人父亲积极参与子女的成长，部分方式是加强这些男性与孩子母亲的关系。研究设计包括一项随机临床试验，其中包括分配到为期16周的夫妻组、为期16周的父亲组或单次会议对照组。参与两种小组干预措施和处于对照条件下的夫妻，其伴侣包括已婚、同居以及虽分开居住但共同抚养幼儿的情况。本文介绍了针对那些因生活艰难而关系面临风险的家庭（其中许多家庭正表现出某种程度的个人或关系困扰），促进父亲参与的基本原理、设计和干预方法。我们根据257个完成了预测试的家庭以及在进入研究9个月后完成了首次干预后评估的前160个家庭的经验，呈现了初步印象和定性研究结果。讨论集中在我们所学到的内容以及在开展一项多地点预防性干预措施以加强低收入家庭关系方面仍有待解答的问题。
