Effects of Relationship-Strengthening Interventions on Parenting Behaviors
About the Study
Purpose: To learn how interventions targeting relationship quality affects parenting behaviors of young, Black, and Latino couples
How we did it: We randomly placed couples in a new intervention program based on Attachment Theory and Emotion-Focused Therapy and compared them to couples in a more traditional program
What we found: Couples who took part in the intervention program had increased parenting satisfaction with small to moderate effects on parenting experiences and caregiving contributions as well.
Methods:
We compared a new program called Partners in Life (PiL) with a parenting program on parenting, engaging, and parenting involvement
49 couples aged 14-25 who were co-parenting a child 0-5 years old were part of the program
Results:
effect sizes showed small to moderate effects on intervention couples who had an increased parenting sense of competence compared to control couples.
Percent of time spent caregiving at four months in the intervention group rose to 62.4% from 61.19%
Impact on Policy and Public Health:
Couples who took part in the intervention program had increased parenting satisfaction with small to moderate effects on parenting experiences and caregiving contributions as well.
Men had greater parenting satisfaction while women had greater parenting efficacy as a result of the intervention.
The quality of the relationship between the mother and father is essential to understand the impact on parenting behaviors.
Future research should look at the effectiveness of couple-based, relationship-strengthening interventions for young couples in larger samples, focusing on the inclusion of fathers as partners.
Gender Differences:
Gender appeared to moderate the effects of the intervention on certain parenting outcomes.
Men in the intervention group showed more positive parenting experiences compared to men in the control group both at four months and eight months.
Men in the intervention group had less parenting engagement compared to men in the control group at four months only.
Women in the intervention group demonstrated increased parenting engagement compared to women in the control group at eight months.
Most other studies on similar interventions focused on families with predominantly white, wealthy, and adult couples, unlike this study. Because similar intervention effects were observed here, this shows that couple-based interventions for improving parenting should be made more effective and accessible for low-income, young, Black and Latino parents.
References:
Based on Diaz, Valen R., et al. "We Are Family: Effects of a Relationship-Strengthening Prevention Intervention on Parenting Behaviors Among Black and Latino Adolescent Couples." Journal of Family Issues (2022): 0192513X211064860.