Promoting a Positive Transition to Parenthood: A Randomized Clinical Trial of Couple Relationship Education

Abstract

Abstract The transition to parenthood is often associated with a decline in couple relationship adjustment. Couples (n=71) expecting their first child were randomly assigned to either: (a) Becoming a Parent (BAP), a maternal parenting education program; or (b) Couple CARE for Parents (CCP), a couple relationship and parenting education program. Couples were assessed pre-intervention (last trimester of pregnancy), post-intervention (5 months postpartum), and follow-up (12 months postpartum). Relative to BAP, CCP reduced negative couple communication from preto post-intervention, and prevented erosion of relationship adjustment and self-regulation in women but not men from pre-intervention to follow-up. Mean parenting stress reflected positive adjustment to parenthood with no differences between BAP and CCP. CCP shows promise as a brief program that can enhance couple communication and women's adjustment to parenthood. There is a well-replicated finding that becoming parents is associated with declining mean couple relationship adjustment, particularly for women (e.g., Feeney et al. 2001; Shapiro et al. 2000), and this decline even occurs among couples who show high pre-pregnancy relationship adjustment (Lawrence et al. 2008). Furthermore, couple communication often becomes more negative after the birth of the first child (Shapiro et al. 2000). Low relationship adjustment and couple negative communication each predict unresponsive and insensitive parenting, and high parenting stress (Cox et al. 1999). The current study evaluated the effects of couple relationship education (CRE) in preventing deteriorating couple adjustment across the transition to parenthood. Couple Adjustment