Grant: DRA : Canada Graduate Research Scholarship - Doctoral Program (CGRS D)

Parent's ability to work together to raise a family, coparenting, is important for the development of children and families. The degree to which parents can coordinate and support each other is linked to children's adjustment. There are two tools that clinicians use to assess coparenting. The first tool, a parent-report questionnaire, is easy to administer, but is biased. The second tool, a behavioural coding scale completed by researchers who rate videos of family interactions, is the gold standard, but time intensive (one hour of coding per ten-minute video) and costly (training researchers). Live (or in-vivo) coding is a methodology that combines the benefits of both tools. Clinicians complete a rating scale while watching the family interactions, thus it is both an objective perspective and quick. The three goals for this project are to a) develop a coding scale for clinicians to use while observing family interactions, b) compare this to the gold standard behavioural observational tool, and c) use the tool to assess change in families participating in a family treatment program. Participants will include 30 families (two caregivers and at least one child aged 2-9) who are receiving the Lausanne Family Play - Brief, a family therapy offered at the York University Psychology Clinic. The 4 sessions are as follows, 1) parent interview, 2) video-recorded family play session, 3) video-based feedback, and 4) second family play assessment to monitor progress. A coparenting questionnaire will be completed by parents before both play sessions. Researchers will code coparenting during the play sessions using the detailed behavioural coding scheme. Finally, during the play assessments, clinicians will use the in-vivo coding scale. This study will examine if this tool is as accurate as the other measurement tools in picking up change following an intervention. The development of the tool will allow clinicians to quickly obtain a reliable, objective rating of coparenting.