UConn Health and Yale researchers are recruiting participants in New Haven and West Hartford for an ongoing clinical trial testing a program intended to reduce family violence and child maltreatment.
The Fathers for Change program combines work on emotional responses, coping skills and parenting relationships. It includes individual treatment, with optional sessions involving a co-parent and child, according to an Oct. 27 UConn research announcement.
Carla Stover of Yale's Child Study Center developed the program. She and UConn Health psychiatry and pediatrics professor Damion Grasso are comparing it with the Duluth Model domestic-violence program in a larger randomized trial funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Random assignment lets researchers compare outcomes between treatment groups. The larger trial remains underway.
The program's Connecticut work includes men referred by the Department of Children and Families. UConn says referral forms can be sent to Stover at carla.stover@yale.edu or Grasso at dgrasso@uchc.edu. Eligibility and participation arrangements must be confirmed with the research team.