All Babies Cry (ABC) is a video-based program designed to prevent abusive head trauma during the first year of a child’s life. It empowers new parents with practical demonstrations of infant soothing and clear strategies for managing normal stress in parenting.
It seeks to increase parents’ use of appropriate behaviours for calming a crying infant and maintaining one's own composure. It aims to:
ABC employs a Strengthening Families Approach that promotes family protective factors known to decrease the likelihood of child abuse, including parenting knowledge, parental resilience and social connectedness.
The program was developed in collaboration with Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
The ABC program can be delivered to first-time parents aged 18 years and over. It was designed to engage both mothers and fathers.
The ACT program has only been evaluated in the USA.
A quasi-experimental design study was conducted with 326 people (154 in the intervention group and 172 in the control group) (Morill et al. 2015). On average, parents were 28 years old. Most of the parents were White. The program was delivered to first-time parents (i.e., with no previous children).
A randomised control trial was conducted with 115 people (53 in the intervention group and 62 in the control group) (Cala Cala et al. 2020). On average, parents were 27 years old and children were just under 2 days old (at enrolment). Most of the parents were Hispanic and low-income earners.
The program has not been evaluated in Australia or with Aboriginal Australians.
The program has not been evaluated with parents of children who (1) were preterm or weighed less than 5 pounds at birth, (2) had a congenital or sensory deficit, or (3) had spent more than 24hrs in the neonatal intensive care unit.
The ABC program has mixed research evidence on two different outcomes: positive parenting behaviours and parenting knowledge.
Overall, the program had a mixed effect on client outcomes.
Mixed research evidence (with no adverse effects):
The ABC program consists of:
The program materials (video and booklet) include documentary footage, real parent testimonies, humorous animations and graphical information.
Not reported.
Morill (2015) reports that the program was well received. The videos were rated an average of four out of five for helpfulness and 96% of parents would recommend All Babies Cry to other parents.
Additional analysis conducted by Cala Cala et al. (2020) shows the program was more successful for mothers born outside the US.
1 QED conducted in the USA with a sample of 326 people (Morill et al. 2015).
1 RCT conducted in the USA with a sample of 115 people (Cala Cala et al. 2020).
For more information and resources about the All Babies Cry program see: https://www.allbabiescry.com/
16 Feb 2023
We acknowledge Aboriginal people as the First Nations Peoples of NSW and pay our respects to Elders past, present, and future.
Informed by lessons of the past, Department of Communities and Justice is improving how we work with Aboriginal people and communities. We listen and learn from the knowledge, strength and resilience of Stolen Generations Survivors, Aboriginal Elders and Aboriginal communities.
You can access our apology to the Stolen Generations.