Long-Term Effects of a Parenting Preventive Intervention on Young Adults’ Attitudes Toward Divorce and Marriage

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.

KEYWORDS:

• attitudes about divorce
• attitudes about marriage
• divorce
• preventive intervention

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.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grants (5R01MH071707, 5P30MH068685, and 5P30MH039246). Trial Registration: clinicaltrials .gov; Identifier: NCT01407120. The first, fourth and fifth authors’ work on this article was supported by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD094334-01). The second author’s work on this article was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (T32DA039772-03) through the Psychology Department and the Research and Education to Advance Children’s Health (REACH) Institute at Arizona State University. The fourth author’s work was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2R01DA09757); National Institute of Mental Health [R01 MH071707].