Effects of a parenting-after-divorce program 26 years later on physical health, mental health, and competence outcomes in adult offspring and their children

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT: Parental divorce is experienced by about 1 million children per year in the US and it is estimated that 40% of children in the US will experience this transition in family structure. Parental divorce confers risk for problems in multiple domains of functioning across the lifespan. Compelling evidence demonstrates that this family transition confers risk for numerous problems in childhood, adolescence and adulthood that have significant individual and societal costs, including physical health problems, mental health problems, problematic substance use, cigarette smoking, and risky sexual activity. It also impairs competencies such as academic performance, peer competence and self-esteem. This proposal advances NICHD's scientific vision to “understand how specific… behavioral, and social factors interact over time to influence health and disease” and to identify individual- and family-level factors that are most likely to promote positive outcomes, such as resiliency. The overall goal of this project is to examine the long-term effects of the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a parenting-after-divorce prevention program that was provided when the offspring were between 9 and 12 years old. The NBP has shown positive effects on multiple problem outcomes and competencies in childhood, adolescence and emerging adulthood. This application proposes a 26-year follow-up of 240 adult offspring (35-38 years old) of mothers who participated in a randomized, controlled trial (RCT) of the program. The specific aims of the project are as follows: 1) examine whether the NBP's effects on physical health, mental health, and substance use problems and competence outcomes endure into adulthood, 2) test the pathways by which the program has long-term effects in adulthood, 3) assess whether the NBP leads to benefits in the offspring (G3) of adults (G2) whose families participated in the NBP 26 years earlier and 4)  conduct a comprehensive assessment of the NBP's fiscal impact.  This project builds on data from five multi- agent, multi-method assessments with excellent retention (90%-98% of randomly assigned families). In the 6- year and 15-year follow-up assessments, program effects were found on multiple domains of functioning, including physical health and mental health outcomes and competencies. Multi-method, multi-agent assessment that includes reports from the adult offspring, their romantic partners, their children between 3 and 18 years old and the children's teacher; behavioral observation of parent-child interactions; and physiological measures of health outcomes will be conducted. Data analytic strategies, including logistic regression, analysis of covariance and survival analysis, will be used to test program effects on the functioning of the adults and their children. Multiple-path mediation models will be conducted to identify the pathways that account for the program effects.