TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving Couples’ Relationship Functioning Leads to Improved Coparenting
T2 - A Randomized Controlled Trial With Rural African American Couples
AU - Lavner, Justin A.
AU - Barton, Allen W.
AU - Beach, Steven R.H.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by award R01 AG059260 funded by the National Institute on Aging and R01 HD069439 funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Steven R. H. Beach, and by award P30 DA027827 to Gene H. Brody funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The authors thank the families for their willingness to participate in this research and the staff at the Center for Family Research for their assistance implementing this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019
PY - 2019/11
Y1 - 2019/11
N2 - Family-centered prevention programs for couples with children are being increasingly disseminated, with the hope that improving couples’ romantic relationships will lead to other benefits for families. To date, however, it is unclear whether these interventions do in fact yield these benefits. The current study addressed this gap by examining whether postintervention improvements in couples’ relationship functioning following family-centered prevention predicted longer-term change in coparenting, and whether postintervention improvements in coparenting predicted longer-term change in relationship functioning. We used four waves of data collected over 2 years from 346 rural African American couples with an early adolescent child who participated in a randomized controlled trial of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) program, an intervention designed to promote strong couple, coparenting, and parent–child relationships in two-parent African American families. Results indicated that ProSAAF had significant short-term positive effects on both romantic relationship functioning and coparenting and that these effects did not differ in magnitude. Over time, however, only romantic relationship functioning postintervention was positively associated with long-term changes in coparenting; coparenting postintervention was not associated with long-term changes in relationship functioning and this association was significantly weaker than the other pathway. These findings support a key premise underlying relationship enhancement programs for parents, indicating that improving couples’ romantic relationship functioning can have longer-term benefits for the coparenting relationship as well. Further research examining long-term parent, child, and family outcomes following family-centered prevention for couples and the mechanisms of change underlying these outcomes is needed.
AB - Family-centered prevention programs for couples with children are being increasingly disseminated, with the hope that improving couples’ romantic relationships will lead to other benefits for families. To date, however, it is unclear whether these interventions do in fact yield these benefits. The current study addressed this gap by examining whether postintervention improvements in couples’ relationship functioning following family-centered prevention predicted longer-term change in coparenting, and whether postintervention improvements in coparenting predicted longer-term change in relationship functioning. We used four waves of data collected over 2 years from 346 rural African American couples with an early adolescent child who participated in a randomized controlled trial of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) program, an intervention designed to promote strong couple, coparenting, and parent–child relationships in two-parent African American families. Results indicated that ProSAAF had significant short-term positive effects on both romantic relationship functioning and coparenting and that these effects did not differ in magnitude. Over time, however, only romantic relationship functioning postintervention was positively associated with long-term changes in coparenting; coparenting postintervention was not associated with long-term changes in relationship functioning and this association was significantly weaker than the other pathway. These findings support a key premise underlying relationship enhancement programs for parents, indicating that improving couples’ romantic relationship functioning can have longer-term benefits for the coparenting relationship as well. Further research examining long-term parent, child, and family outcomes following family-centered prevention for couples and the mechanisms of change underlying these outcomes is needed.
KW - African American couples
KW - coparenting
KW - prevention
KW - relationship functioning
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U2 - 10.1016/j.beth.2018.12.006
DO - 10.1016/j.beth.2018.12.006
M3 - Article
C2 - 31735238
AN - SCOPUS:85061158482
SN - 0005-7894
VL - 50
SP - 1016
EP - 1029
JO - Behavior Therapy
JF - Behavior Therapy
IS - 6
ER -