Mellow Babies – a pilot waiting list trial
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Mellow Babies – a pilot waiting list trial
IRAS ID
157028
Contact name
Lucy Thompson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Aberdeen
Research summary
There is good evidence for the view that early intervention to prevent and manage difficulties in the parent-infant relationship may produce long-term benefits such as reduction in rates of criminality, substance abuse and educational underachievement. A meta-analysis of sensitivity and attachment interventions in early childhood has shown that the most effective interventions use a moderate number of sessions (n=5-16) and are focused on parental sensitivity.
Mellow Babies is an intervention designed for mothers with substantial problems in their relationships with their infants. Typically, participating mothers have mental health difficulties, problem drug use, learning difficulties, forensic issues or they may have children already looked after by the local authority. The intervention consists of 14 whole day sessions with a joint focus on maternal wellbeing and the parent-infant interaction: transport and crèche facilities are provided.
Although Mellow Parenting interventions (Mellow Babies is probably the best-evidenced) are quite widely used in a number of countries, no definitive randomised trials have been carried out. To date there has been a single small waiting list trial (17 participants) suggesting improvement in maternal mood and mother-child interaction. We aim to inform the design of a definitive RCT with a mixed-methods approach, including a pilot waiting-list control trial to allow a more robust assessment of effect size on the main outcome measure, and qualitative feedback from participants and practitioners.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
14/NS/1007
Date of REC Opinion
18 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion