ABSTRACT
This study examined whether the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a parenting-focused preventive intervention designed to reduce children’s postdivorce mental health problems, affected attitudes toward divorce and marriage in young adults whose mothers had participated 15 years earlier. Participants (M = 25.6 years; 50% female; 88% White) were from 240 families that had participated in a randomized experimental trial (NBP vs. literature control). Analyses of covariance showed that program effects on both types of attitudes were moderated by gender. Males in the NBP reported more positive attitudes toward marriage and less favorable attitudes toward divorce than males in the literature control.
Acknowledgments
We thank the mothers and children for their participation as well as the group leaders for their careful delivery of the program. Sharlene A. Wolchik, Irwin N. Sandler, and Michele M. Porter declare the following competing financial interest: Partnership in Family Transitions—Programs That Work, LLC, which trains and supports providers to deliver the New Beginnings Program.