The Effects of Mother Participation in Relationship Education on Coparenting, Parenting, and Child Social Competence: Modeling Spillover Effects for Low‐Income Minority Preschool Children

• Author: Francesca Adler‐Baeder,Kate Taylor Harcourt,Thomas Smith,Scott Ketring,Brian Vaughn,Chelsea Garneau,Julianne McGill
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12267
• Date: 01 March 2018
• Published date: 01 March 2018

The Effects of Mother Participation in Relationship

Education on Coparenting, Parenting, and Child

Social Competence: Modeling Spillover Effects for

Low-Income Minority Preschool Children

FRANCESCA ADLER-BAEDER*

CHELSEA GARNEAU

†

BRIAN VAUGHN*

JULIANNE MCGILL*

KATE TAYLOR HARCOURT

‡

SCOTT KETRING*

THOMAS SMITH*

Although suggestions are that benefits of relationship and marriage education (RME)

participation extend from the interparental relationship with parenting and child ou t-

comes, 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 decre ases 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) demon-

strate significant improvements compared to nonparticipants (n=143) on coparenting

agreement, parenting practices, and teachers’ reports of preschool children’s social compe-

tence over a 1 year period. The findings are offered as a step forward in better understand-

ing the experiences of low-resource participants in RME. Implications for future rese arch

are discussed.

Keywords: Relationship Education; Child Social Competence; Coparenting; Parenting;

Minority Families; Program Evaluation

Fam Proc 57:113–130, 2018

*Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University, Auburn, AL.

†

Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.

‡

Department of Human Development and Family Science, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Francesca Adler-Baeder, Department

Human Development and Family Studies, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849. E-mail: Francesca@

auburn.edu.

This study was supported through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

Administration for Children and Families (90FE0001). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommen-

dations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

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Family Process, Vol. 57, No. 1, 2018 ©2016 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12267

Several decades of research have highlighted the role of adult relationships in the devel-

opment of children within the family (Doherty & Beaton, 2004; Erel & Burman, 1995;

Krishnakumar & Buehler, 2000; Teubert & Pinquart, 2010). Specifically, children who

grow up in homes with high levels of interparental conflict and hostility are at increased

risk for socio-emotional, behavioral, academic, and health problems (Benson, Buehler, &

Gerard, 2008; El-Sheikh & Hinnant, 2011). Results from these studies are consistent with

both a family systems perspective that assumes cross-dyad influences regarding the con-

tent and quality of interactions, and social learning theory that emphasizes observational

processes (Bandura, 1977; Whitchurch & Constantine, 1993). The empirical evidence of

linkages among interparental relationship functioning, parenting practices, and children ’s

social development is so robust that scholars have called for interventions focused on pro-

moting healthy interparental relationships in the family in order to promote childr en’s

positive social development, particularly in the early years and for more vulnerable chil-

dren (Buehler & Gerard, 2002; Hawkins, Carroll, Doherty, & Willoughby, 2004; Kouros,

Cummings, & Davies, 2010). More complete tests of these linkages following intervention

participation, however, are very limited.

Early Social Competence

The development of age appropriate social skills and prosocial competencies are impor-

tant milestones of the preschool period (Waters & Sroufe, 1983) and lay the foundation for

later social competencies and related outcomes. Specifically, children’s socio-emotional

competencies at entry into kindergarten positively predict successful adjustment to schoo l

and academic achievements (Ladd, 2005). Furthermore, individual differences in social

competence in the first preschool year tend to be preserved across early childhood (Santos,

Vaughn, Peceg uina, Daniel, & Shin, 2014; Shin et al., 2011) and into the elementary

school years (Howes, Droege, & Matheson, 1994).

Children living in low-income and ethnic minority families and neighborhoods experi-

ence greater challenges in social competence development (Morrison, Ponitz, & McClel-

land, 2010), and early social competence may be particularly important for school-related

outcomes for children from more disadvantaged backgrounds (Fantuzzo, Perry, & McDer-

mott, 2004). Miles and Stipek (2006) examined longitudinal associations among pros ocial

behaviors and literacy achievement in a sample of low-income children and found that

children who engaged in more prosocial behaviors in first grade engaged in more prosocial

behaviors and had higher literacy achievement 2 years la ter. Another study of low-income

elementary school children found that both higher initial levels of social competence and

gains in social competence over the course of a year predicted more positive academic out-

comes, and this finding was significantly stronger for African-American children than for

European-American children (Elias & Haynes, 2008).

Interparental Relationship, Parenting Practices, and Child Outcomes

Research that considers interparental conflict and its links to child maladjustment

(e.g., cognitive, social, and academic functioning) consistently finds significant, yet modest

relationships (Fincham, 1994; Teubert & Pinquart, 2010). An early meta-analysis of 33

studies documented the negative association between interparental conflict and child

adjustment, with a mean effect size of d=.16 (Reid & Crisafulli, 1990). Several studies

utilizing genetically informed designs find an influence of the environment, including rela-

tional hostility and hostile parenting, on children’s social competence behaviors, above

and beyond the influence of shared genes (Rhoades et al., 2011; Stover et al., 2012, 2016).

Concurrent links are found at all stages of child and adolescent development (Benson

et al., 2008; El-Sheikh et al., 2009; Kouros, Merrilees, & Cummings, 2008). More recent

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