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BMC Public Health
Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Research article

Strengthening resilience through an extended postnatal home visiting program in a multicultural suburb in Sweden: fathers striving for stability

Authors: Kirsi Tiitinen Mekhail, Lene Lindberg, Bo Burström, Anneli Marttila

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

Background

To improve prerequisites for better health development among children growing up in multicultural suburbs in Stockholm County, where poorer health is displayed in several aspects including child health, early support was initiated for first-time parents in one of the suburbs. An extended postnatal home visiting program during the child’s first 15 months was offered to families with first-time mothers during 2013–2014 and consisted of six home visits by a child health care nurse and a parental advisor from social services. Almost all invited families (94%) participated in the program and the program evaluation. Fathers’ participation in two or more home visits within the program was 53%.
The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of fathers participating in the program, with respect to their role as a first-time parent from a resilience perspective.

Methods

In-depth interviews were conducted with nine fathers. Constructivist grounded theory (GT) was applied in the analysis.

Results

The fathers’ experiences formed the core category of the study, ‘striving for stability in living conditions’, as well as three categories: ‘everyday life conditions’, ‘adjustment to fatherhood in Sweden’ and ‘channels of support’. The fathers perceived that the home visiting program strengthened their parental confidence and increased their knowledge of societal services and local resources for their family.

Conclusions

In terms of resilience, the extended postnatal home visiting program benefitted the interviewed migrant fathers on an individual level by meeting part of their need for support regarding knowledge and parental confidence; on a structural level the program helped fathers gain information about available societal services and resources in their local area.

Trial registration

The study was retrospectively registered (11 August 2016) in the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN11832097 DOI: https://​doi.​org/​10.​1186/​ISRCTN11832097).
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Strengthening resilience through an extended postnatal home visiting program in a multicultural suburb in Sweden: fathers striving for stability
Authors
Kirsi Tiitinen Mekhail
Lene Lindberg
Bo Burström
Anneli Marttila
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6440-y

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