The goal of this proposal is to evaluate the long-term effects of a universal preventive intervention for couples expecting a first child on parent adjustment, parenting, and child outcomes from six to eight years after birth. A key innovation of this transition-to-parenthood model, called Family Foundations (FF), is the focus on enhancing the coparenting relationship, based on evidence that coparenting is a causal influence on parent adjustment, parenting quality, and child outcomes (Feinberg, 2002, 2003; Minuchin, Rosman, & Baker, 1978). Given the positive results of FF to date in two trials, and the program's potential population reach, it is critically important to understand the potential of FF for enhancing child well-being over a longer period of time and across both family and school settings. Thus, we propose to assess not only children's self-regulation and emotional/behavioral adjustment (e.g., internalizing and externalizing behavior problems), but children's school adaptation and academic achievement in the early years of elementary school as well. Additionally, we propose to leverage the experimental design to test the causal pathways in the underlying theory, thus providing a test of whether program impact on coparenting and parent adjustment lead to change in parenting quality, which in turn together influence children's self-regulation and adjustment.
The proposed investigation holds significant promise for understanding the persistence and generalization of preventive impact due to brief universal family support at the transition to parenthood. Such an understanding will both advance our understanding of causal influences on child mental health, behavioral adjustment, and school adaptation, as well as provide evidence regarding long-term family-focused prevention outcomes.
| Jones, Damon; Feinberg, Mark; Hostetler, Michelle et al. (2018) Family and Child Outcomes 2 Years After a Transition to Parenthood Intervention. Fam Relat 67:270-286 |
| Marshall, Amy D; Roettger, Michael E; Mattern, Alexandra C et al. (2018) Trauma exposure and aggression toward partners and children: Contextual influences of fear and anger. J Fam Psychol 32:710-721 |
