Clinical Trial of an Early Parenting Empowerment Intervention to Promote Socioemotional Development in Infants With Developmental Disabilities: Parent and Infant Behavioral, Neuroendocrine and Epigenetics Outcomes

Infants with developmental disabilities present a high risk of behavioral and socio-emotional problems. Their parents are themselves at risk of developing emotional and affective disorders which can impact the quality of the interaction with the infant. Early parenting empowerment focused on parent-infant interaction are beneficial in supporting infants development and parental adjustment. By using a multi-layer approach to outcomes assessment (i.e., behavioral, neuroendocrine and epigenetic outcomes), the present longitudinal, multi-center, change-promoting clinical trial is aimed at assessing the effectiveness of an early parenting empowerment intervention based on video-feedback technique to support maternal responsiveness and the socio-emotional development of infants with developmental disabilities.