The Becoming a Family Project is a longitudinal research and clinical intervention study of couple relationships during family formation. The study has three central objective: (1) To examine the impact of a first child on couple relationships during the transition to first-time parenthood; (2) To evaluate a preventive intervention designed to facilitate couple adaptation to become a family; and (3) To describe the impact of couple relationship quality on the development and mental health of the young child. We have been following 96 couples: 72 were interviewed and assessed in late pregnancy and again 6 and 18 months postpartum; 24 similar couples not yet decided about having children were assessed over a similar period. We are now in the final year of a three-year renewal period (1982-85), assessing the couple, the child, and parent-child relationships at 42 months postpartum. This application requests renewed support for the years 1986-1989 to follow the families again when the children have entered elementary school. With pre-birth data describing both parents and the marriage, we can flesh out our investigation of the bi-directional influences of parents and children on each other's satisfaction, adaptation, and dysfunction. Within our central concern about the connection between couple relationships and child development, there are 3 related aims of the current proposal, each representing a logical extension of work completed or in progress: 1) To test our model describing the impact of couple relationship quality on child development at a later point in family life; 2) To test hypotheses about the reciprocal links between the family's impact on the child's adaptation to kindergarten and the impact of the transition on the family; and 3) To provide a critical test of our preventive intervention by examining whether the early positive effects are still operative during a new major family transition. Our emphasis on assessment of the family during periods of transition reflects a method of focusing on coping at times of disequilibration in order to understand family processes associated with development and mental health in adults and children.
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