Self-help interventions for parenting couples experiencing conflict or relationship distress: study protocol for a...

Children exposed to high levels of couple distress are at increased risk for a range of adjustment problems, including behavioral, emotional, and academic difficulties. These relational burdens can also interfere with adult mental health, the coparenting relationship, and the capacity to provide warm and consistent caregiving. Despite these challenges, many couples delay seeking help until their relationship is seriously deteriorated. This randomized controlled trial investigates the effects of two flexible self-help interventions: the OurRelationship program (OR) and couple-focused bibliotherapy (BT). We hypothesize that the OR will outperform BT which in turn will outperform a waitlist (WL) control in reducing communication conflict-the primary outcome-between baseline and post-intervention. We hypothesize that any couple intervention (OR or BT) will outperform WL in reducing impact on child wellbeing-the secondary outcome-between baseline and post-intervention for children with such impact at baseline.

Parenting couples (N = 350) with one or more children living at home, who report either high levels of parental conflict or relationship distress, are recruited via municipal family services in 11 or more Danish sites. Participants enroll through an online platform, complete a screener, provide informed consent, and fill out a baseline survey before randomization. Families are randomly assigned in a 1:1:1 ratio to OR, BT, or a WL. Online questionnaires are completed at baseline (T₁, before randomization), post-intervention (T₂, 10 weeks after randomization), and at 3-month and 12-month follow-ups (T₃ and T₄, respectively). Dyadic multilevel models, with repeated measures (Level 1) nested within couples (Level 2), will be used to examine group differences in change trajectories across time for continuous outcomes.

Including both a BT condition and a WL control allows us to test whether the OR offers added benefit over an accessible low-tech self-help option. Apart from the previous pilot, this is the first trial to evaluate the OR independently of its developers and the first study conducted outside the USA.

Registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (ID = NCT07125118). Approved by Aarhus University's Research Ethics Committee-Behavioural and Social Sciences (registration number BSS-2024-018-S2, February 26, 2024) and registered with Aarhus University's internal data protection registry (Datatilsyn no. 1732).