VIRTUAL MENTORSHIP TO SUPPORT MATERNAL AND INFANT HEALTH AND WELLBEING: UNDERSTANDING THE PARTICIPANT EXPERIENCE AND EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF NURTUREPA

父母与年幼子女的互动构成了入学准备和随后生活成功的基石。然而，特别是新妈妈可能会与增加的压力和抑郁症作斗争，这可能会影响她们与孩子的互动。虽然一些最有风险的母亲从家访计划中获得支持，但许多家庭的过渡是一个脆弱和苛刻的时期，在此期间，未减轻的压力源的积累可能会对儿童和父母的健康发展产生负面影响。总部位于汉堡的非营利性NurturePA开发了一个基于文本的点对点辅导计划，为新父母提供社会支持。NurturePA旨在通过提高母亲的育儿技能和减少母亲的压力来促进幼儿的健康发展。新妈妈们与导师配对，导师们使用短信与她们交流、支持、告知和鼓励她们。虽然先前的研究已经表明，基于文本的轻推可以导致大学生和学龄儿童的父母的行为转变，但这种行为干预方法尚未在有年幼子女的父母群体中广泛使用或研究。NurturePA计划的研究提供了一个机会，了解这种行为干预如何用于支持0至3岁儿童的家庭。目前，我们的研究团队从基金会获得资金，以200名目标样本进行随机对照试验（RCT）（100例对照组和100例治疗组）研究NurturePA对4个月和12个月时产妇压力、产妇知识以及产妇参与语言和识字支持实践的影响。根据目前的NurturePA实践，我们将从匹兹堡的西宾夕法尼亚医院招募产后母亲参与我们的调查。我们将跟踪所有参与者在计划的前12个月。我们希望招收一个种族和社会经济多样化的参与者群体。我将在两年的项目期间写一篇三篇论文，这将在几个关键方面为总体研究增添内容。具体来说，我将为这项研究增加一个定性补充，以满足文献中的要求（Hall & Bierman，2015），以获得更多关于参与者如何与行为干预互动的过程数据。为此，我将编码和分析来自关键参与者的访谈数据以及参与者与导师互动的文本记录。我还将研究该计划对关键目标成果的影响，并将该计划的实施和参与者的参与与四个月时对产妇压力，产妇知识以及产妇参与语言和识字支持实践的影响联系起来（均在四个月的时间点）。研究结果将增加有关行为干预是否与父母和至关重要的是，对父母如何参与基于文本的行为干预的文献。

Parents’ interactions with their young children form the bedrock for school readiness and subsequent life success. However, new mothers in particular can struggle with increased stress and, not infrequently, depression, which can affect their interactions with their children. While some of the most at-risk mothers receive support from home visiting programs, or many families the transition to parenthood is a vulnerable and demanding period where the accumulation of unmitigated stressors can negatively impact healthy development for children and parents alike.Pittsburgh-based non-profit NurturePA has developed a text-based peer-to-peer mentorship program to provide social support for new parents. NurturePA seeks to promote the healthy development of young children by enhancing their mothers’ parenting skills of the children’s parents and by reducing maternal stress. New mothers are paired with mentors, who use text messaging to communicate with, support, inform, and encourage them. While prior research has demonstrated that text-based nudges can lead to shifts in the behavior of college- bound students and of parents with school-aged children, this behavioral approach to intervention has not been broadly utilized or studied in populations of parents with young children. A study of the NurturePA program affords an opportunity to understand how this type of behavioral intervention can be used to support families with children aged zero-to-three.Presently, our study team has funding from a foundation to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a target sample of 200 individuals (100 control and 100 treatment) to investigate the impact of NurturePA on maternal stress, maternal knowledge, and maternal engagement in language and literacy supportive practices at 4 and 12 months. In alignment with current NurturePA practices, we will recruit postpartum mothers from West Penn Hospital in Pittsburgh to participate in our investigation. We will track all participants over their first 12 months in the program. We expect to enroll a racially and socio-economically diverse group of participants.I will write a three- paper dissertation over a two-year project period that will add to the overarching study in several keys ways. Specifically, I will add a qualitative supplement to the study that will meet calls in the literature (Hall & Bierman, 2015) for more process data on how participants are interacting with behaviorally focused interventions. To do so, I will code and analyze interview data from key participants and text-based transcripts of participant-mentor interactions. I will also examine impacts of the program on key targeted outcomes and link implementation of the program and participant engagement to impacts on maternal stress, maternal knowledge, and maternal engagement in language and literacy supportive practices at four months (both at the four-month time point). Findings will add to the literature regarding whether behavioral interventions work with parents and crucially, on how parents engage with text-based behavioral interventions.