Improving early relationships: a randomized, controlled trial of an age-paced parenting newsletter.
OBJECTIVE
Parenting is recognized as a key mediator in both health and educational outcomes. Much is known on the value of support and group work in benefiting parenting, but little is known on the effect of written information. A randomized, controlled trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of a parenting newsletter, sent monthly to the parents' home from birth to 1 year, on maternal well-being and parenting style. We tested the hypothesis that mothers receiving the newsletter would show less stress and better parenting characteristics than controls.


METHODS
Parents of first infants born in a North East England District General Hospital between February and October 2003 who consented to take part in the study were randomly allocated to either the intervention or control arm. Those in the intervention arm were sent 12 monthly issues of an age-paced parenting newsletter containing information on emotional development, parent-child interaction, and play. Both the intervention and control group received normal parenting support. Mothers in both groups completed the Well-being Index, Parenting Daily Hassles Scale, and the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory at birth and at 1 year.


RESULTS
One hundred eighty-five mothers were recruited, with 94 randomly assigned to the intervention group, and 91 controls. Allowing for differences at recruitment, there were significant differences between the groups at 1 year: the intervention mothers had lower frequency and intensity of perceived hassles and fewer inappropriate expectations of the infant on the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory than the control mothers.


CONCLUSIONS
A monthly parenting newsletter sent directly to the home in the first year of life seems to help parents to understand their infant better and feel less hassled. This intervention is low cost and can be applied to all parents, so it is nonstigmatizing.
Waterston
Tony
T
Newcastle University, School of Clinical Medical Sciences-Child Health, Newcastle, UL. a.j.r.waterston@ncl.ac.uk
Welsh
Brenda
B
Keane
Brigid
B
Cook
Margaret
M
Hammal
Donna
D
Parker
Louise
L
McConachie
Helen
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000639:trends*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult