The Family Study Center celebrates 20 years of research and partnerships

Carrie O’Brion

The field of infant mental health was relatively unnoticed 20 years ago. Most discussions about mental health focused on the experiences of adolescents or adults, mostly due to a mistaken belief that infants were so young that their lives were relatively uncomplicated.

Today, that viewpoint has changed dramatically. There is widespread recognition that adverse experiences during infancy and early childhood can have lifelong impacts on physical and mental health, and that families play powerful protective roles in the face of such adversity. This revolution in thinking is largely thanks to the pioneering research contributions of the Family Study Center (FSC) at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Over the past 20 years, the FSC has played a significant role in raising awareness about the roles of families in the healthy development of infants and young children from newborns to age 3.

The center, now internationally recognized in the field of infant-family mental health, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2023–24. In doing so, it is sponsoring a broad array of events for students, families and professionals throughout the year. These events are recapping some of the most important discoveries in the field of infant-family mental health over the past 20 years, bringing scholars from around the world to USF St. Petersburg and celebrating many of the FSC’s major collaborations, contributions and contributors.

ELEVATING THE CONCEPT OF “COPARENTING”

The FSC’s work has been guided by two scientific discoveries: that the first three years of a child’s life are unparalleled in building healthy brain development and assuring emotional security, and that these foundations for healthy development are shaped by infants’ and toddlers’ everyday experiences in their communities and social networks, with those who care for them. FSC research has shown that early infant mental health can be improved through the successful strengthening of relationships between children’s important caregiving adults, or “coparents.”

Coparenting is a child development framework that goes beyond a focus on just mothers and infants. It even goes beyond mothers, fathers and infants to recognize and understand the child’s emotional bonds with all caregivers contributing to their upbringing. In countless families through Florida, the U.S. and the world, grandparents or other relatives care for infants daily. Providers outside the family also care for young children sometimes up to 40 hours a week or more. For babies, such individuals function as coparents.

“We take time to understand and support children’s families in whatever form the families actually take, without making judgments about how they ought to be,” said James McHale, director of the FSC since its inception. “Looking at children and families worldwide, across all cultures, the vast majority experience caregiving support and form bonds with multiple individuals during the course of their young lives.”

The Family Study Center sees coparenting as an “every child” concept, and the FSC’s research and programs are geared toward strengthening relationships and coordination among coparents who are raising children. The center’s work throughout the past 20 years has been influential locally, nationally and internationally in establishing and promoting this groundbreaking model.

RECOGNIZING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF A SPECIAL CAREGIVER

The events scheduled for the 20th anniversary celebration reflect the center’s commitment to strengthening coparenting in the families of infants and very young children. The event series launched in October with a presentation by Carla Stover of Yale University’s School of Medicine Child Study Center, who was a coinvestigator for the FSC’s “Figuring It Out for the Child” (FIOC) initiative.

FIOC is a unique resource and referral program designed to support unmarried, non-coresident African American mothers and fathers having their first baby together. It is offered free of charge and unlike many federally and privately sponsored marriage and relationship enhancement programs, no present or future marriage or enduring committed romantic relationship is presumed.

The presentation by Stover was particularly poignant as it paid tribute to Katherine McKay, one of the major contributors to the FSC’s mission over the past 20 years. McKay was lead clinical supervisor for the FIOC initiative from its beginnings and a co-author for numerous conference presentations and published articles. She passed away in November of 2022 at age 53.

McHale called McKay the “heartbeat” of the decade-long FIOC initiative that served scores of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County families. She provided lead supervisory support for more than 100 interventions with families in a Juvenile Welfare Board-sponsored pilot program and the Brady Education Foundation-funded field trial.

“She was an exceptional, extraordinary, irreplaceable colleague and human being,” McHale said. “I am so happy we had occasion to honor her as we launched the FSC’s 20th anniversary.”

The anniversary celebration will continue January 26, 2024, with a presentation by Miri Keren, past president for the World Association for Infant Mental Health, and Diane Philipp, a world expert in family intervention during infancy. The January event is intended to help strengthen family practice in a range of professions by building practitioners’ skills in observing infants’ contributions to their family.

ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION SPOTLIGHTS GLOBAL RESEARCH/ COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS

The anniversary celebration culminates with a full week of activities on April 8–12. It kicks off on Tuesday, April 9, with the first annual FSC “Listening to Families.” This is a re-envisioning of the FSC’s “Listening to Babies” (LTB). LTB was a decade-long series of training events for those who serve children and families prenatally through age 5, advocating for culturally sensitive practice in supporting the social-emotional development of young African American children. The April 9 community celebration and family listening event is sponsored by the Juvenile Welfare Board, the FSC’s longtime partner and supporter.

On Wednesday, April 10, the FSC will host a Community Partner Breakfast, where they will present the 2024 “Building Blocks for Babies” awards to recognize the achievements of those whose contributions supporting babies and families have had enduring impact in Pinellas County.

The culminating event will be a full-day professional training conference called “Thinking Three.” The featured speaker will be Chandra Ghosh Ippen, associate director of the Child Trauma Research program at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a child psychologist, children’s book author and world leader in the dissemination and implementation of child-parent psychotherapy (CPP).

The conference will also include an afternoon keynote presentation by infant-family mental health expert, Silvia Mazzoni from the Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology at Sapenzia University of Rome (Italy), along with several afternoon breakout sessions on coparenting.

McHale said while several anniversary events highlight globally impactful coparenting research advancing infant-family mental health around the world, others recognize and honor contributions of local community members. These community partnerships have always been essential to the FSC’s mission, ensuring the center continues to make a real, meaningful impact on babies and their families in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County.

Among the FSC’s most enduring partners has been the Next STEPP (Services to Those Experiencing Pregnancy or Parenting) Center. Next STEPP not only collaborated on but was the community hub for both the FIOC initiative and the FSC’s newest collective impact effort, “Connected Coparenting.”

“Our ability to serve parents and families has been greatly enhanced and expanded through our partnership and collaboration with the USF Family Study Center,” said Carole Alexander, Next STEPP’s CEO. “We appreciate the work of Dr. James McHale in providing equitable opportunities to build strong families and communities by ensuring that the programs offered by the center are easily accessible and culturally responsive.”

McHale said that authentic partnerships between universities and community groups that address significant societal concerns are both special and rare.

“They are never possible without the trust, goodwill and direction of the community itself,” he added. “The Family Study Center intends to celebrate all those who have informed and guided our work throughout the years and helped advance a common mission of strengthening and supporting families of infants and toddlers.”