Improving Couples' Relationship Functioning Leads to Improved Coparenting: A Randomized Controlled Trial With Rural...

Area of Science:

• Family Studies
• Psychology
• Public Health

Background:

• Family-centered prevention programs aim to enhance family well-being by improving couple relationships.
• The effectiveness of these programs in yielding broader family benefits, particularly for coparenting, requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine if improvements in couples' relationship functioning predict longer-term coparenting changes.
• To investigate if improvements in coparenting predict longer-term relationship functioning changes.

Main Methods:

• Utilized four waves of data over 2 years from 346 rural African American couples with early adolescents.
• Employed a randomized controlled trial of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) program.
• Analyzed the predictive associations between relationship functioning and coparenting over time.

Main Results:

• The ProSAAF program showed significant short-term positive effects on both romantic relationship functioning and coparenting.
• Postintervention romantic relationship functioning positively predicted longer-term coparenting changes.
• Postintervention coparenting did not predict longer-term relationship functioning changes.

Conclusions:

• Improving couples' romantic relationship functioning has longer-term benefits for the coparenting relationship.
• Findings support the premise of relationship enhancement programs for parents.
• Further research is needed on long-term parent, child, and family outcomes and mechanisms of change.