Randomized Control Trial of the Co-Parenting for Resilience Program

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Project Summary Parental divorce can negatively affect children in ways that are often severe and long lasting. Approximately 25% of the children of divorcing parents have major long-term mental and behavioral health problems compared to approximately only 10% of children in the general population. Even among those who ultimately adjust well, many will experience considerable emotional distress which can lead to maladaptive coping and negative outcomes such as antisocial behavior, depression, school dropout, substance use and precocious sexual activity. In response to the effects of divorce on children, brief prevention interventions focused on teaching parents how to ameliorate the impact of divorce on their children have gained widespread acceptance by court systems across the nation, and online versions of the same have proliferated during COVID-19. However, recent systematic and metanalytic reviews reporting on the efficacy of divorce education programs, while showing promising results, generally lack the methodological rigor to form the strong empirical foundation needed to advance the field in both theory and practice. To address these weaknesses, the current project tests Co-Parenting for Resilience (CPR), a divorce education program that draws on theories from the field of Marriage and Family Therapy and Prevention Science to incorporate empirically-supported therapeutic strategies into a 4-hour psychoeducational workshop. Building upon our previously successful trial using a non- equivalent control group, the proposed study uses a 3-arm (CPR in-person, CPR online, and bibliotherapy attention placebo control) randomized controlled trial with an intent to treat design. The study collects a sample of 300 parents who have recently filed for divorce to accomplish the following three aims: 1) Determine the relative efficacy of the online and in-person versions of CPR to improve child post-divorce adjustment compared to each other and to a bibliotherapy control group at 3- and 12-month follow-ups; 2) Test paths from the online and in-person versions of CPR to child adjustment via parenting competencies; and 3) Identify moderators of the effectiveness of in-person and online formats of CPR such as parent gender, ethnicity, and level and type of conflict between divorcing partners. If accomplished, these aims will provide insight into whether: (a) remitting couples to a divorce education class is more effective than simply reading a book on divorce, (b) in-person or online delivery formats are more beneficial in helping parents overcome the parenting challenges of divorce, and (c) there are subgroups for whom divorce education is more or less effective.