The proposed study extends the 5-domain model of family adaptation and the couple group intervention developed with families during the transition to parenthood. The study tests the hypothesis that family-based preventive interventions designed to enhance the marriage and the parenting effectiveness of parents of pre-school children will facilitate the children's academic, social, and emotional adaptation to early elementary school. This study expands the focus of family/school studies from mothers and children to father-child and family observational data obtained before and after the kindergarten year. It combines longitudinal and intervention methods to examine the mechanisms in the adaptation of parents, couples, and children during a major family transition. A five-year study would follow families from the pre-kindergarten year through the Grade 1 school year. Families whose first child is about to enter kindergarten will be recruited through a screening in pediatricians' offices, preschools, and childcare centers. Of those, 150 couples with a range of higher to lower marital distress will be invited to participate in a more extensive, second phase of the study: 60 percent of the couples will have children at risk for social, emotion, or academic difficulties by virtue of the parents' low marital satisfaction and high conflict, and 40 percent will have children who are not particularly at risk. Higher and lower distress couples will be randomly assigned in a 60:40 ratio to participate in 1 of 3 conditions: (1) a no-treatment control, with consultation available (n=50 couples); (2) a marriage-focused parenting intervention (n=50 couples in 10 groups of 5); and (3) a parent-child focused parenting intervention (n=50 in 10 groups of 5). Three related types of questions can be answered with data from the proposed study. The first set of questions focus on how marital and parenting quality operate as risk and protective factors, shaping the child's academic and social adaptation in early elementary school. The second questions are outcome questions about the impact of family-based interventions on family functioning and children's school adaptation. The third set concern the features of the intervention that are responsible for change in the couple and parent-child relationships.
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