Evaluation of a Couple- and Family-Based Intervention: Implications for the Fathering Vulnerability Hypothesis

Abstract

SYNOPSIS Objective. This study evaluated a preventive intervention to reduce destructive interparental conflict, increase constructive communication, and improve emotional security in interparental, parent-child, and family-wide relationships. Emotional Security Theory provided the theoretical bases for this program. The present focus was on an evaluation of the fathering vulnerability hypothesis, which posits that fathers and their family relationships are particularly susceptible to the effects of destructive interparental conflict. Thus, fathers may benefit especially from an intervention to improve marital and family conflict. Design. Two hundred twenty-five families with an adolescent (112 females; 11 to 17 years old, M = 13.23 years; SD = 1.57) participated, randomly assigned to a parent-adolescent condition (PA; n = 75), a parent-only condition (PO; n = 75), or a control condition (n = 75). Dyadic growth curve modeling evaluated the intervention’s effects on changes in the father-child relationship and fathers’ reports of marital quality over the course of a year. Results. Consistent with the fathering vulnerability hypothesis that fathers would benefit more from couple- and family-focused interventions, positive effects of the intervention on marital quality and attachment were identified for fathers but not mothers. Additionally, further tests directly comparing the strength of each condition’s impact on fathers and mothers revealed that the intervention had stronger positive effects on father-adolescent attachment than mother-adolescent attachment. Conclusions. These results provide a broader understanding of the beneficial effects of the present intervention and offer evidence in the context of a randomized-controlled design in support of the fathering vulnerability hypothesis.