Cascade effects of a parenting-focused program for divorced families on three health-related outcomes in emerging adulthood.

Using data from a 15-year longitudinal follow-up of a randomized controlled trial of a parenting-focused preventive intervention for divorced families ( = 240) with children aged 9-12, the current study examined alternative cascading pathways through which the intervention led to improvements in offspring's perceived health problems, BMI, and cigarette smoking in emerging adulthood. It was hypothesized that the program would lead to improvements in these health-related outcomes during emerging adulthood through progressive associations between program-induced changes in parenting and offspring outcomes, including mental health problems, substance use, and competencies. Intervention-induced improvements in positive parenting at posttest led to improvements in mental health problems in late childhood/early adolescence, which led to lower levels of mental health and substance use problems as well as higher levels of competencies in adolescence, which led to improvements in the health-related outcomes.

Can Online Parent Education Meet the Needs of the Courts and Improve the Well-Being of Children? The Critical Roles of Goal, Program, and Evidence Alignment.

Parent education in family courts can significantly impact children's well-being after divorce if programs are (1) widely accessible, (2) acceptable to parents, (3) feasible to implement by courts, and (4) have evidence of effectiveness in improving key outcomes for children. In light of recently raised concerns about whether court-ordered/court-mandated parent education is justified; it is critical to identify effective parent education programs. Online parent education programs have the potential to be widely accessible, acceptable to parents and courts, and effectively promote children's well-being.

Preventing Mental Health Problems in Children After High Conflict Parental Separation/Divorce Study: An Optimization Randomized Controlled Trial Protocol.

Parental divorce is a childhood stressor that affects approximately 1.1 million children in the U.S.

Developmental pathways of the family bereavement program to promote growth 15 years after parental death.

Although parental death increases the risks of negative developmental outcomes, some individuals report personal growth, an outcome that has received little attention. We tested a developmental cascade model of postloss growth in 244 parentally bereaved youth (ages 8-16 at baseline) from 156 families who participated in a randomized controlled trial of a family-based intervention, the Family Bereavement Program (FBP). Using five waves of data, the present study examined the prospective associations between the quality of parenting immediately following the FBP and postloss growth 6 and 15 years later, and whether these associations were mediated by changes in intra- and interpersonal factors (mediators) during the initial 11 months following the FBP.

Preventing Adverse Outcomes for Bereaved Youth: Indirect Effects From a Randomized Trial of the Family Bereavement Program on Fear of Abandonment, Grief, and Mental Health.

Objectives: We investigated whether the self-system belief of fear of abandonment mediated the effects of intervention-induced change in 2 protective factors-positive parenting and adaptive coping-and one risk factor-stressful events-on youth mental health problems and maladaptive grief. This study extends prior research on fear of abandonment in youth who experience parental death by examining pathways through which a program reduced fear of abandonment and, in turn, affected subsequent pathways to child mental health problems in the context of a randomized experiment.

Methods: This is a secondary data analysis study.

Effects of a preventive parenting intervention for bereaved families on the intergenerational transmission of parenting attitudes: Mediating processes.

This study evaluated whether the Family Bereavement Program (FBP), a prevention program for parentally bereaved families, improved parenting attitudes toward parental warmth and physical punishment in young adult offspring 15 years after participation and identified mediational cascade pathways. One hundred fifty-six parents and their 244 offspring participated. Data were collected at pretest (ages 8-16), posttest, and six- and 15-year follow-ups.

Enhancing Daily Affect in Youth Experiencing High-Conflict Parental Divorce: A Multiple Baseline Trial of an Online Prevention Program.

This study investigated the effects of a highly interactive, online cognitive-behavioral youth coping program: Children of Divorce-Coping with Divorce (CoD-CoD; Boring et al., 2015) on children exposed to high levels of interparental conflict (IPC). A multiple-baseline experimental design (N = 9) evaluated within-subject intervention effects on change in daily positive and negative affect before, during, and after the intervention (n = 462).

The Development, Evaluation, and Implementation of Parenting-focused Prevention Programs in Collaboration with Family Court.

Promoting the well-being and best interests of children in separated and divorcing families is a shared value among family court professionals and prevention scientists who develop and evaluate intervention programs. This article chronicles the development, evaluation, and implementation of two programs - the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a parenting intervention for separated/divorcing parents and the Family Transitions Guide (FTG), an intervention designed to motivate high conflict separated/divorcing parents to attend the NBP. The development and evaluation of these programs was facilitated by a long-standing collaboration with Maricopa Family Court.

Developmental Manifestations of Grief in Children and Adolescents: Caregivers as Key Grief Facilitators.

The death of a loved one represents one of the most distressing and potentially traumatic life events in childhood and adolescence. Grief reactions in youth are influenced by ongoing developmental processes and manifest differently depending on the child's age and developmental stage. These grief-related processes unfold within youths' caregiving context, as children and adolescents rely heavily on the adults in their environment to navigate and cope with the death of a loved one.

Longitudinal Effects of PostDivorce Interparental Conflict on Children's Mental Health Problems Through Fear of Abandonment: Does Parenting Quality Play a Buffering Role?

In a sample of 559 children (ages 9-18), researchers investigated whether: (a) fear of abandonment mediated the association between postdivorce interparental conflict (IPC) and mental health problems, and (b) parent-child relationship quality moderated the association between IPC and fear of abandonment. Mediation analyses indicated that pretest IPC predicted fear of abandonment 3 months later, which then predicted child- and teacher-reported mental health problems 10 months later. The hypothesized protective effect of a high-quality parent-child relationship was not observed.

Developmental cascade effects of a parenting-focused program for divorced families on competence in emerging adulthood.

This 15-year longitudinal follow-up of a randomized controlled trial of a parenting-focused preventive intervention for divorced families examined cascade models of program effects on offsprings' competence. It was hypothesized that intervention-induced improvements in parenting would lead to better academic, work, peer, and romantic competence in emerging adulthood through effects on behavior problems and competencies during adolescence. Families (N = 240) participated in the 11-session program or literature control condition when children were ages 9-12.

Coping in context: The effects of long-term relations between interparental conflict and coping on the development of child psychopathology following parental divorce.

Exposure to high levels of postdivorce interparental conflict is a well-documented risk factor for the development of psychopathology, and there is strong evidence of a subpopulation of families for which conflict persists for many years after divorce. However, existing studies have not elucidated differential trajectories of conflict within families over time, nor have they assessed the risk posed by conflict trajectories for development of psychopathology or evaluated potential protective effects of children's coping to mitigate such risk. We used growth mixture modeling to identify longitudinal trajectories of child-reported conflict over a period of six to eight years following divorce in a sample of 240 children.

Parenting time, parenting quality, interparental conflict, and mental health problems of children in high-conflict divorce.

Despite widespread acknowledgment that "frequent, continuing, and meaningful" (Pruett & DiFonzo, 2014) time with both parents is beneficial for children from divorced or separated families, and that interparental conflict (IPC) is associated with increased child mental health problems, the joint effects of parenting time (PT), parenting quality (PQ), and IPC on children's mental health problems are less clear. The current study integrates two theoretical models in multiple mediator analyses to test indirect effects of mothers' and fathers' PQ and IPC to explain the association between PT and children's mental health problems within the same model. Participants were children aged 9-18 years ( = 141) who had one or both parents participate in a randomized comparative effectiveness trial of a court-based prevention program for high-conflict divorcing or separating families.

Long-term Effects of a Parenting Preventive Intervention on Young Adults' Attitudes Toward Divorce and Marriage.

This study examined whether the New Beginnings Program (NBP), a parenting-focused preventive intervention designed to reduce children's post-divorce 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% Caucasian) were from 240 families that had participated in a randomized experimental trial (NBP vs.

Redesigning Implementation Measurement for Monitoring and Quality Improvement in Community Delivery Settings.

The field of prevention has established the potential to promote child adjustment across a wide array of outcomes. However, when evidence-based prevention programs have been delivered at scale in community settings, declines in implementation and outcomes have resulted. Maintaining high quality implementation is a critical challenge for the field.

Multigroup Propensity Score Approach to Evaluating an Effectiveness Trial of the New Beginnings Program.

We used a multigroup propensity score approach to evaluate a randomized effectiveness trial of the New Beginnings Program (NBP), an intervention targeting divorced or separated families. Two features of effectiveness trials, high nonattendance rates and inclusion of an active control, make program effects harder to detect. To estimate program effects based on actual intervention participation, we created a synthetic inactive control comprised of nonattenders and assessed the impact of attending the NBP or active control relative to no intervention (inactive control).

Does Shared Parenting Help or Hurt Children in High Conflict Divorced Families?

Despite a recent shift in the allocation of parenting time arrangements following divorce, there is no clear consensus regarding the effects of shared parenting on children's adjustment in high conflict families. We propose key questions and methodological options to increase the ability of results from well-designed empirical studies to inform practice and policy. We review eleven studies of the relations between parenting time and quality of parenting with children's adjustment in high conflict divorced families.

The Cascading Effects of Multiple Dimensions of Implementation on Program Outcomes: a Test of a Theoretical Model.

This study tests a theoretical cascade model in which multiple dimensions of facilitator delivery predict indicators of participant responsiveness, which in turn lead to improvements in targeted program outcomes. An effectiveness trial of the 10-session New Beginnings Program for divorcing families was implemented in partnership with four county-level family courts. This study included 366 families assigned to the intervention condition who attended at least one session.

Addressing Methodologic Challenges and Minimizing Threats to Validity in Synthesizing Findings from Individual-Level Data Across Longitudinal Randomized Trials.

Integrative Data Analysis (IDA) encompasses a collection of methods for data synthesis that pools participant-level data across multiple studies. Compared with single-study analyses, IDA provides larger sample sizes, better representation of participant characteristics, and often increased statistical power. Many of the methods currently available for IDA have focused on examining developmental changes using longitudinal observational studies employing different measures across time and study.

Attendance Trajectory Classes Among Divorced and Separated Mothers and Fathers in the New Beginnings Program.

We examined attendance trajectories among mothers and fathers in the effectiveness trial of the New Beginnings Program, a parenting-focused prevention program for divorced and separated parents. We also investigated attendance trajectory class differences on two sets of pretest covariates: one set previously linked to participation in programs not specifically targeting divorced parents (i.e.

"Home Practice Is the Program": Parents' Practice of Program Skills as Predictors of Outcomes in the New Beginnings Program Effectiveness Trial.

An examination of the content and processes of evidence-based programs is critical for empirically evaluating theories about how programs work, the "action theory" of the program (West et al. in American Journal of Community Psychology, 21, 571-605, 1993). The New Beginnings Program (NBP; Wolchik et al.

Developmental cascade models of a parenting-focused program for divorced families on mental health problems and substance use in emerging adulthood.

A developmental cascade model from functioning in adolescence to emerging adulthood was tested using data from a 15-year longitudinal follow-up of 240 emerging adults whose families participated in a randomized, experimental trial of a preventive program for divorced families. Families participated in the program or literature control condition when the offspring were ages 9-12. Short-term follow-ups were conducted 3 months and 6 months following completion of the program when the offspring were in late childhood/early adolescence.