Parents as Partners: A U.K. Trial of a U.S. Couples-Based Parenting Intervention For At-Risk Low-Income Families.

Despite the well-established links between couple relationship quality and healthy family functioning, and burgeoning evidence from the international intervention field, there is little or no evidence of the efficacy of couples-based interventions from the United Kingdom (U.K.). This study explored whether the Parents as Partners (PasP) program, a group-based intervention developed in the United States, brought about the same benefits in the U.K. The evaluation is based on 97 couples with children from communities with high levels of need, recruited to PasP because they are at high risk for parent and child psychopathology. Both mothers and fathers completed self-report questionnaires assessing parents' psychological distress, parenting stress, couple relationship quality and conflict, fathers' involvement in child care and, importantly, children's adjustment. Multilevel modeling analysis comparing parents' responses pre- and postintervention not only showed substantial improvements for both parents on multiple measures of couple relationship quality, but also improvements in parent and child psychopathology. Analyses also indicated most substantial benefits for couples displaying poorest functioning at baseline. The findings provide initial evidence for the successful implementation of PasP, an American-origin program, in the U.K., and add support for the concept of the couple relationship as a resource by which to strengthen families.

Working models of attachment to parents and partners: implications for emotional behavior between partners.

This study examined whether working models of attachment are associated with observed positive emotion, sadness, and anger during marital conflict. Individuals (n = 176) from a longitudinal study of families participated in the current cross-sectional study. Narrative interviews assessed the unique and combined contribution of attachment representations based on parents (adult attachment) and partner (couple attachment). The influence of partner's attachment, depression symptoms, and sex of participant was also examined. Hierarchical linear models demonstrated that one's couple attachment security predicts one's observed positive emotion, whereas the partner's couple attachment security predicts one's observed negative emotion. Partner's depression symptoms moderated the effects of partner's couple attachment. Adult attachment was not related to observed emotional behavior between partners. These findings have important clinical implications for individual, couple, and family therapy.

Linking marital conflict and children's adjustment: the role of young children's perceptions.

Young children's (n = 96) perceptions and appraisals of their parents' marital conflict were evaluated at age 5 and again at age 6. Concurrent reports of marital conflict by each parent and teachers' reports of children's classroom adjustment served as criteria against which to evaluate the validity of young children's perceptions. Children's perceptions of their parents' marital relationship were significantly correlated with spouses' reports at ages 5 and 6, as well as correlated with teacher reports of internalizing and externalizing problems. Consistent with the cognitive-contextual theory, children's tendency to blame themselves for their parents' conflict partially mediated the link between marital conflict and children's internalizing symptoms. In contrast, children's reports that they become involved in their parents' conflict partially mediated the effect of marital conflict on externalizing problems.

Unresolved loss in the Adult Attachment Interview: implications for marital and parenting relationships.

This study examined links between the unresolved loss of a significant person and current functioning in marital and parenting relationships. Participants were 80 women who had experienced loss, their husbands, and their preschool children. Unresolved loss was assessed using the Adult Attachment Interview, and individual, marital, and parenting adaptation was assessed through videotaped observations and women's self-reports. As predicted, women with unresolved loss displayed less positive emotion and more anxiety and anger with both their husbands and children, compared to women who were not unresolved. They also displayed less authoritative and more authoritarian parenting styles with their children. Yet unresolved women did not report more individual or relationship difficulties, suggesting that direct observations are needed to assess the implications of unresolved loss for family functioning.

Can children provide coherent, stable, and valid self-reports on the big five dimensions? A longitudinal study from ages 5 to 7.

Research on early childhood personality has been scarce. Self-reports of Big Five personality traits were measured longitudinally with the Berkeley Puppet Interview when children were 5, 6, and 7 years of age. For comparative purposes, Big Five self-reports were collected in a sample of college students. The children's self-reports showed levels of consistency and differentiation that approached those of the college age sample. Children's personality self-reports demonstrated significant correlations across the 1- and 2-year longitudinal intervals. Substantial and increasing convergence was found between children's self-reports of Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness and conceptually relevant behavior ratings provided by mothers, fathers, and teachers. Children's self-reports of Neuroticism were unrelated to adults' reports but did predict sadness and anxious behavior observed in the laboratory. The results provide the beginnings of an account of how the Big Five dimensions begin to be salient and emerge as coherent, stable, and valid self-perceptions in childhood.