Can Interventions that Strengthen Couples’ Relationships Confer Additional Benefits for their Health? A Randomized Controlled Trial with African American Couples

Barton, Allen W.; Lavner, Justin A.; Beach, Steven R. H.

doi:10.1007/s11121-020-01175-7

Published: 03 October 2020

Can Interventions that Strengthen Couples’ Relationships Confer Additional Benefits for their Health? A Randomized Controlled Trial with African American Couples

Prevention Science volume 22, pages 386–396 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

This study examined the effects of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) prevention program on adults’ self-reported health outcomes 25 months after enrollment. ProSAAF is a couple-focused prevention program specifically designed to meet the needs of African-American families residing in the rural South. African-American couples (N = 346) with an early adolescent child participated in a randomized controlled trial of the program. Dyadic data analyses indicated significant direct effects on changes in couple functioning post-intervention as well as significant indirect effects of ProSAAF on changes in health through post-intervention improvements in couple functioning. These benefits were documented for men’s and women’s general health, depressive symptoms, and problematic sleep. There were no significant direct effects of ProSAAF participation on changes in health. Findings provide tempered optimism regarding the potential benefits of couple-focused programming for adults’ physical, mental, and behavioral health.

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Notes

To be eligible, the target child to be African-American, but not both parents. Ethnicity was not assessed in surveys completed by participants. Notes from research staff indicated that two caregivers (from different families) were not African-American. All participants were comfortable being identified as part of an African American family
These two couples were excluded from analyses because data analytic techniques required dyads to be distinguishable by sex, and this subsample size precluded group comparisons
Analyses comparing constrained models to the unconstrained model indicted no significant deterioration in model fit by imposing these equality constraints

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Award Numbers R01 HD069439 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and R01 AG059260 from the National Institute on Aging to Steven R. H. Beach as well as P50 DA051361 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to Gene H. Brody. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Funding

This research was supported by Award Number R01 HD069439 from NICHD, Award Number R01 AG059260 from NIA, and Award Number P50 DA051361 from NIDA.

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Authors and Affiliations

Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2024 Christopher Hall, MC-081, 904 W. Nevada St., Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
Allen W. Barton
Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Justin A. Lavner & Steven R. H. Beach
Center for Family Research, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
Steven R. H. Beach

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Allen W. Barton
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Justin A. Lavner
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Steven R. H. Beach
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Correspondence to Allen W. Barton.

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Research Involving Human Participants

All procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board of the university at which the research was conducted and complied with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

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Informed consent was obtained from all couples prior to data collection and program participation.

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Barton, A.W., Lavner, J.A. & Beach, S.R.H. Can Interventions that Strengthen Couples’ Relationships Confer Additional Benefits for their Health? A Randomized Controlled Trial with African American Couples. Prev Sci 22, 386–396 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-020-01175-7

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Accepted: 25 September 2020
Published: 03 October 2020
Issue Date: April 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-020-01175-7

Keywords

African Americans
Couples
Health
Prevention
Relationship satisfaction