Collateral Benefits Of A Brief, Couple-Focused Intervention On Coparenting: Indirect Effects Through Couple Relationship Quality And Conflict

In two-parent households, the interparental relationship is central to the wellbeing of family relationships and individual members. The current study examines whether participation in a brief, online, couple-focused relationship intervention has collateral benefits to coparenting (i.e., how two parents coordinate in their parenting roles), indirectly through improvements in couple relationship quality and conflict frequency, respectively. A community sample of couples with young children (N = 140 couples; 280 participants; 91.4% heterosexual) participated in a longitudinal randomized controlled trial. Both members of the couple (49.3% women) reported on perceived relationship quality and conflict frequency (at baseline and post-intervention; T1, T2), and coparenting (at baseline, 1-month, and 3-month follow-up; T1, T3, T4). Controlling for initial levels (T1), longitudinal path modelling indicated that random assignment to the intervention directly predicted relative increases in relationship quality at T2. In turn, increased relationship quality at post-intervention predicted relative increases in coparenting at T3 and T4, respectively. Consistent with longitudinal mediation, the indirect effect of random assignment to the intervention on later coparenting via relationship quality was also significant. Random assignment to the intervention was not associated with changes in conflict frequency; thus, there was not a significant indirect effect through conflict frequency to coparenting. Similarly, sensitivity analyses testing conflict-related distress as a mediator demonstrated no collateral benefits to coparenting. Finally, a parallel mediation analysis including both mediators indicated that the indirect effect of the intervention to coparenting via relationship quality was significant when controlling for the pathway through conflict frequency. There are positive cascading effects of a couple-focused intervention onto how parents work together to parent their child.