title: The Effects of Mother Participation in Relationship Education on Coparenting, Parenting, and Child Social Competence: Modeling Spillover Effects for Low-Income Minority Preschool Children.
abstract: Although suggestions are that benefits of relationship and marriage education (RME) participation extend from the interparental relationship with parenting and child outcomes, few evaluation studies of RME test these assumptions and the relationship among changes in these areas. This quasi-experimental study focuses on a parallel process growth model that tests a spillover hypothesis of program effects and finds, in a sample of low-income minority mothers with a child attending a Head Start program, that increases in mother reports of coparenting agreement for RME participants predict decreases in their reports of punitive parenting behaviors. Although improvements in parenting behaviors did not predict increases in teacher reports of children's social competence, improvements in coparenting agreement were associated with increases in children's social competence over time. In addition, comparative tests of outcomes between parents in the program and parents in a comparison group reveal that RME program participants (n = 171) demonstrate significant improvements compared to nonparticipants (n = 143) on coparenting agreement, parenting practices, and teachers' reports of preschool children's social competence over a 1 year period. The findings are offered as a step forward in better understanding the experiences of low-resource participants in RME. Implications for future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University, Auburn, AL.
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Adler-Baeder
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.
authors.forename: Chelsea
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Garneau
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University, Auburn, AL.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vaughn
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University, Auburn, AL.
authors.forename: Julianne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McGill
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Science, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
authors.forename: Kate Taylor
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Harcourt
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University, Auburn, AL.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ketring
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University, Auburn, AL.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004505:Education, Nonprofessional / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057194:Intention to Treat Analysis; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D065228:Non-Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*; D066107:Social Skills; D015144:Southeastern United States; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Child Social Competence; Coparenting; Minority Families; Parenting; Program Evaluation; Relationship Education; capacitación en relaciones; cocrianza; competencia social infantil; crianza; evaluación de programas; familias minoritarias; 亲职; 儿童社会能力; 共同亲职; 关系教育; 少数族裔家庭; 项目评估