Investigating the Influence of Relationship Education on Parental Attitudes

Economically strained couples experience a multitude of chronic stressors and are at greater risk for lower quality relationships with their children. Relationship education (RE) programs indicate positive results for economically strained couples who attend. However, most studies examine relationship satisfaction or communication patterns with few addressing the influence of RE on parental attitudes. Therefore, we examined changes in parental attitudes for couples (n = 70) and compared differences in parental attitudes as measured by the empathy and family roles subscales of the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory-2 at pre- and post-assessment. Results partially supported the hypothesis becasue participants indicated no significant differences between pre- and post-scores on empathy; however, participants did indicate significant differences between pre- and post-scores on family roles. Implications of results and discussion are provided.