Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
Department of Health Sciences and the Hull York Medical School, University of York, York, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2024 Sep 26;19(9):e0305551. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305551. eCollection 2024.
Early years interventions, particularly those supporting parents in the first 1001 days of their infants life, support healthy development of infants and prevent adverse experiences that can have long term negative impacts. Volunteers are often used to deliver such interventions. This scoping review aimed to explore the roles and characteristics of volunteers across early years interventions and map the evaluation in this field to identify gaps in the literature. A scoping review was conducted according to the Arksey and O'Malley Framework. Academic databases and grey literature sources were searched to identify literature evaluating volunteer-based interventions for parents in the first 1001 days of their infant's life (conception to aged two). Research conducted in the UK or comparable high-income countries since the year 2000 were identified and data relating to the volunteer role, intervention design and evaluation methods were mapped. Sixty-six articles were eligible for inclusion in the review. Volunteers were commonly involved in interventions to provide peer support for a range of parenting related matters, support breastfeeding and the mental and emotional wellbeing of parents. Volunteer roles were categorised based on their background (peers or non-peer volunteers), their responsibilities (provider of peer support, educator or providers of practical support) and the delivery style of their role (in person one to one support, group leader or remote support). Research most often involved exploring the experiences of those involved in receiving or delivering the interventions and measuring outcomes in relation to breastfeeding and parent mental wellbeing. Volunteers play a large role in the provision of early years interventions. Their varied contribution is presented through a typology that will allow comparisons of roles in future research. Further research exploring the impact on the volunteers and the organisation will support decision making around choosing a volunteer led model within early years services.
早期干预措施，特别是那些在婴儿生命的前 1001 天支持父母的干预措施，支持婴儿的健康发展，并预防可能对其产生长期负面影响的不利经历。志愿者通常被用于提供此类干预措施。本范围综述旨在探索整个早期干预措施中志愿者的角色和特征，并绘制该领域的评估图，以确定文献中的空白。根据 Arksey 和 O'Malley 框架进行了范围综述。搜索了学术数据库和灰色文献来源，以确定评估婴儿生命的前 1001 天（受孕至两岁）期间基于志愿者的干预措施对父母的效果的文献。确定了自 2000 年以来在英国或可比高收入国家开展的研究，并绘制了与志愿者角色、干预设计和评估方法有关的数据。有 66 篇文章符合综述纳入标准。志愿者通常参与提供同伴支持的干预措施，以解决各种与育儿相关的问题，支持母乳喂养以及父母的心理和情感健康。志愿者角色根据其背景（同伴或非同伴志愿者）、职责（同伴支持提供者、教育者或实用支持提供者）和角色的提供方式（面对面一对一支持、小组组长或远程支持）进行分类。研究通常涉及探索参与接受或提供干预措施的人的经验，并测量与母乳喂养和父母心理健康相关的结果。志愿者在提供早期干预措施方面发挥了重要作用。他们通过一种分类法展示了多样化的贡献，这种分类法将允许在未来的研究中比较角色。进一步探索志愿者和组织的影响将支持在早期服务中选择志愿者主导模式的决策。
