Web-Based Marriage Education for Foster, Kinship, and Adoptive Couples

描述(由申请者提供)：这个项目的目的是开发和评估一个专门的在线版本的婚姻教育计划，为资源(即，寄养，亲属关系，和收养)父母。该计划名为预防和增进关系计划(PREP)，是一个经过充分研究、高度有效和广泛使用的课程，已经被调整用于某些特定人群，尽管不是专门针对资源夫妇。寄养、亲属关系和领养夫妇面临着非同寻常的挑战，这些挑战可以而且确实会对他们的婚姻产生很大影响。标准的家庭背景和干预动态并不适用于这些夫妇。然而，针对这些父母的特殊需求和情况而量身定做的婚姻教育可以为他们提供急需的社交技能，以避免他们在婚姻关系中的负面互动模式，并将他们的期望引导到一个健康的框架中。在第一阶段，我们成功地开发并测试了PREP计划的前两个模块。研究结果有力地支持了在线版本在这一人群中的有效性。在第二阶段，我们将制作另外13个适合这一人群的模块，以完成该计划。我们将在全国范围内对100对寄养、收养和亲属关系夫妇进行全面、完整的评估，包括知识、沟通和冲突处理技能的衡量标准，健康婚姻的各种指标，以及亲子适应测试。合适的是，受试者的招募以及培训干预措施的实施和测试都将在网上完成。公共卫生相关性：参与该项目的受试者将获得重要的信息和技能，以帮助他们理解和管理寄养、收养和亲属关系夫妇婚姻生活中的独特挑战。因此，婚姻、育儿、家庭生活的质量、资源性子女的适应能力和安置的稳定性都会得到改善。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this project is to develop and evaluate a specialized online version of a marital education program for resource (i.e., foster, kinship, and adoptive) parents. The program, called Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP), is a well-researched, highly effective, and widely used curriculum that has been adapted already for use with certain select populations, though not specifically with resource couples. Foster, kinship, and adoptive couples face extraordinary challenges that can, and do, have a large impact on their marriages. Standard family contexts and dynamics for intervention do not generalize to these couples. However, marital education tailored to the special needs and circumstances of these parents could provide them with much needed social-communication skills to avoid negative interaction patterns in their marital relationship and to steer their expectations into a healthy framework. In Phase I we successfully developed and tested the first two modules from the PREP program. Findings provided strong support for the efficacy of the online version with this population. In Phase II we will produce another 13 modules adapted to this population to complete the program. We will evaluate the full, finished program with a national sample of 100 foster, adoptive, and kinship couples on measures of knowledge, communication and conflict management skills, a variety of indicators of a healthy marriage, and a test of parent and child adjustment. Fittingly, the recruitment of subjects, as well as the implementation and testing of the training intervention, will all be done online. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Subjects participating in this project will gain important information and skills to help them understand and manage the unique challenges of married life for foster, adoptive, and kinship couples. As a result, the quality of the marriage, parenting, family life, the resource child's adjustment, and the stability of the placement could improve.