Impacts of a Coparenting-Focused Intervention on Links between Pre-birth Intimate Partner Violence and Observed...

Although research has demonstrated the negative implications of intimate partner violence (IPV) for parenting, our understanding of the role of preventive interventions in buffering the effects of IPV on mothers' and fathers' earliest parenting is limited. This study examined impacts of a prevention program on longitudinal associations between IPV and observed parenting across the transition to parenthood in a community sample of 167 couples. Participants reported on past-year IPV prenatally and were observed interacting with their one year-old child; couples were randomly assigned to an 8-session prevention program designed to improve coparenting or a control condition. Links between mothers' and fathers' violence and parenting were largely significant, but only for control group couples. Coparenting did not significantly mediate associations between IPV and parenting among control group couples. This study adds to our understanding of the associations between IPV and early parenting, and has important implications for prevention.