Bridging Theory and Practice: Love Together, Parent Together Writing Program for Couples with Young Children

Authors: Veronica Benyamin, Gillian Shoychet, Heather Prime

Presented at The Society for Personality and Social Psychology, York University

Abstract

COVID-19 has strained many families, with declining relationship quality and increased conflict amongst couples. Pre-pandemic stressors may exacerbate this effect for some families, such as those with young children. The current study is part of a larger feasibility pilot of the Love Together, Parent Together program (L2P2), which uses social psychological theory to advance applied work with couples. Participants in the L2P2 study include 20 couples with young children (N = 40), with baseline and post-intervention surveys and three biweekly writing intervention sessions encouraging conflict reappraisal over six weeks. The proposed poster will examine pre-post change in constructs targeted by the intervention – relationship quality and perceived partner responsiveness – using multilevel modelling to account for nested data (individuals within couples). Data collection will be completed in November 2021. Findings will examine preliminary support for the use of L2P2 with couples who have young children and will be used to inform the parameters of a future definitive randomized controlled trial. Applications to theories of social psychology and relationship science will be discussed.