Positively Impacting Maternal Stress and Parental Adjustment through Community-Based Relationship Education (RE)

Exploring Family Adjustment Among Parents of a Child With a Disability Attending Relationship Education

“…Consistent with previous studies of RE (Daire et al, 2018), we found that male and female RE participants identified a significant decrease in parental distress associated with their parenting roles. As aforementioned, parents of children with special needs tend to report more mental distress and greater physical illness (Trute et al, 2012).…”

“…Additionally, children may benefit from their parent's participation in RE programs, specifically evidenced by increased mental health outcomes (Sterrett-Hong et al, 2018) and social skills (Kirkland et al, 2011). RE also benefits racially and economically diverse pregnant women in terms of reduced parental distress and improved family-based and social support (Daire et al, 2018). Yet, RE programs with low-income couples produced a small yet significant main effect (d = .10) that was strongly influenced by RE attendance rates .…”

“…Likewise, couples raising a child with a disability report less quality time, closeness, and positive interaction with their partner (Hartley et al, 2017) and subsequently may face a higher rate of divorce (Hartley et al, 2010). However, research with community-based samples of couples with low income (i.e., not specifying disability status within the family) demonstrates the positive effect of relationship interventions on family adjustment (e.g., Daire et al, 2018). Relationship Education (RE) is an empirically supported intervention for couples with low income to improve communication, increase relationship satisfaction and family adjustment, and decrease psychological distress (e.g., Hawkins & Erickson, 2015; Williamson et al, 2016).…”