The Effects of Mother Participation in Relationship Education on Coparenting, Parenting, and Child Social Competence: Modeling Spillover Effects for Low-Income Minority Preschool Children.

Although suggestions are that benefits of relationship and marriage education (RME) participation extend from the interparental relationship with parenting and child outcomes, few evaluation studies of RME test these assumptions and the relationship among changes in these areas. This quasi-experimental study focuses on a parallel process growth model that tests a spillover hypothesis of program effects and finds, in a sample of low-income minority mothers with a child attending a Head Start program, that increases in mother reports of coparenting agreement for RME participants predict decreases in their reports of punitive parenting behaviors. Although improvements in parenting behaviors did not predict increases in teacher reports of children's social competence, improvements in coparenting agreement were associated with increases in children's social competence over time.

Relationship Education for Incarcerated Adults.

As relationship education (RE) programs become more widely implemented, it is important to measure and document the changes associated with RE for diverse audiences. Also, researchers have been challenged to examine the impact of RE with more disadvantaged groups. While we are seeing an increase in this area, only three studies have examined RE with an incarcerated sample.

Relationship education for stepcouples reporting relationship instability--evaluation of the Smart Steps: Embrace the Journey curriculum.

Smart Steps: Embrace the Journey is a research-based educational curriculum for stepfamily couples ("stepcouples"). The curriculum is designed to build couple strengths while addressing the unique challenges of repartnering with a child or children from a previous relationship. This study evaluated the effectiveness of this curriculum with 151 individuals in relationally less stable stepcouple relationships who either engaged in the Smart Steps curriculum (n = 97) or were part of the comparison group (n = 54).