Guided Participation Support of Coparenting an Infant With Complex Congenital Heart Disease: A Randomized Pilot Feasibility Study

Abstract

Background and Purpose:Parents’ competencies in coparenting are critical to adaptive and competent caregiving of an infant with complex congenital heart disease. To date, feasible interventions to support parents in working together—coparenting—for caregiving of these infants have not been developed and systematically examined. The purpose of this feasibility study was to examine the efficacy of the participatory teaching/learning intervention, Guided Participation (GP) on parent dyads’ competencies in interactive problem-solving tasks in preparation for a randomized controlled trial.Methods:Nurse guides used GP to support mother and father couples in developing coparenting competencies through the first 6 months after birth. Couples, enrolled from two regional heart centers, were randomly assigned either to the usual care group (n= 10) or the GP group (n= 24). Intervention involved nurse guided GP in hospital and, following the infant’s discharge, monthly telephone GP sessions between 2-months and 6-months infant age. In-home data collection visits at 2 and 6 months included video-recorded parent interaction problem-solving tasks with two goals, infant caregiving and the parent couple’s relationship. The Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales were used to score observed interactive competencies.Results:Retention was 82%, and results revealed small to moderate effect sizes for GP on problem-solving constructs for mothers and for the parent couple dyad.Implications for Practice:Our findings support further study in a fully powered randomized trial with a more diverse sample, handbook-enhanced GP, and examination of the effect on a broader spectrum of outcomes, including infant growth and development.