ZEPPELIN is a longitudinal intervention study with randomized control trial (RCT) research design: parents of infants from 132 families in difficult circumstances were visited at home every two to three weeks during three years within the framework of the program "PAT - Learning with Parents" (PAT). They were compared with infants from 116 socially burdened families without a support programme. It is being examined whether early support from birth is effective for families with social burdens. The main questions are:
1. Does the intervention have a positive effect on child development?
2. Do the parents become more competent in educational questions?
3. Does the intervention promote the social integration of the families?
4. Is the school success of children with the support programme higher than without the support programme?
Target group: ZEPPELIN addresses families who are in a difficult life situation around birth and need support in the early education and care of their children. Such a situation exists when burdens such as limited social support, strained financial circumstances, unemployment or family difficulties make it difficult to start parenthood.
Here are some data from the sample: Of the 248 participating families, 73% of the mothers do not have a Swiss passport, 31% spoke little or no German when they were recruited, 34% have not completed post-compulsory education and 12% are single parents. 14% of the children are prematurely born, 10.6% have a birth weight below 2500g and 5.2% are twins. The families could be reached thanks to good cooperation with the regional child and youth welfare centres and interdisciplinary networks (maternity wards, paediatricians, etc.).
Early intervention: Early intervention took place in various municipalities in the canton of Zurich with the parental education programme "PAT - Partents as Teachers" (PAT). In some cases, families were accompanied at home by an experienced maternal advisor ("PAT" parent trainer) before the child was born, in most cases from the first months after birth until the child's third birthday. In addition, there were monthly group meetings in the family centre. All "PAT" parent trainers attended a training course on the implementation of "PAT" and were regularly coached and supervised. For further background information and contents of the program see http://www.pat-mitelternlernen.org.
Research: To investigate the effectiveness of early intervention, families were randomly divided into two groups before early intervention: One group with "PAT"-intervention (intervention group or IG) and one group without intervention (control group or KG). The comparison between IG and KG is intended to show the extent to which effects of early intervention can be detected. To this end, data were collected from the parents, the child, and the interaction between parents and child after birth and around the first three birthdays of the child.