Suchergebnisse

The U.S. government has recently spent several hundred million dollars to promote healthy relationships in new parents. The influx of money implies that relationships of new parents are at elevated risk for declining satisfaction and dissolution. This meta-analysis aggregates data from 37 studies that track couples from pregnancy to after the birth of the first child and 4 studies that track childless newlywed couples over time and compare couples who do and do not become parents. Results indicate significant, small declines in relationship satisfaction for both men and women from pregnancy to 11-months post-birth; five studies that followed couples for 12–14 months found moderate-sized declines. Seven variables moderated the decrease in relationship satisfaction from pregnancy to early parenthood. However, the decrease in satisfaction may not indicate anything unique about the transition to parenthood; the four studies following newlyweds indicated that those who do not become parents experience a similar decrease in relationship satisfaction as parents do across a comparable span of time. Implications for prevention and future directions are discussed.

ObjectiveTo examine couple and parenting outcomes from an American version of Couple CARE for Parents (CCP) in low‐income, unmarried couples.BackgroundWe adapted an evidence‐based, flexibly delivered program for use with low‐income, unmarried couples, for whom the outcome literature is scarce.MethodCouples (N = 443) were recruited from maternity units and began CCP. They completed measures before, during, and immediately after the intervention and again 6 months later.ResultsExperience of moderate psychological intimate partner violence (IPV) declined and perceived parenting efficacy increased over time; there was no change in severe psychological or physical IPV. Individuals with lower levels of relationship commitment than their partners showed improvement in relationship satisfaction, whereas those with similar or higher levels of commitment maintained their baseline levels despite being in a period of expected satisfaction decline.ConclusionCCP showed some signs of helping low‐income couples during a stressful period, and its flexible service delivery model allowed these couples to participate by reducing the impediments of transportation challenges, conflicting work schedules, and overall time poverty.ImplicationsThe results of this study suggest practitioners interested in using CCP with low‐income couples would likely maximize the impact by (a) focusing on pregnant, first‐time parents; (b) integrating CCP within postnatal health care; and (c) assuming that a considerable minority of couples will avail themselves of only up to two sessions, and thus practitioners should frontload content, making other content optional or just‐in‐time. In addition, nonpsychoeducational elements (e.g., gamification, easy computerized tasks to reduce angry responses, watching couple‐themed movies) could enliven preventative offerings for perinatal couples.

In a study of conflict recovery and adolescent dating aggression, 14‐ to 18‐year‐old couples (N = 209 dyads) participated in a 1‐hr observational assessment. Negative behavior was observed during conflict‐evoking "hot" tasks and in a "cooldown" task. Physical and psychological dating aggression were assessed via questionnaires. Negative behavior measured in the cooldown task was not associated with dating aggression after controlling for carryover effects of negativity from the hot to cooldown tasks. Moreover, cooldown negativity moderated the associations of hot task negativity and dating aggression. Actor and partner effects were disentangled via dyadic data analyses. Given the paucity of observational studies of dating aggression, our findings are an important contribution to the literature and in need of replication and extension.