A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Couple Relationship and Coparenting Program (Couple CARE for Parents) for High- and Low-Risk New Parents Jemima F. Petch Relationships Australia Queensland, Eight Miles Plains, Queensland, Australia W. Kim Halford and Debra K. Creedy University of Queensland Jenny Gamble Griffith University Objective: This study evaluated the effectiveness of couple relationship education in assisting couples to sustain relationship functioning and parenting sensitivity, and whether benefits were moderated by risk of maladjustment in the transition to parenthood (“risk”). Method: Two hundred fifty couples expecting their first child were assessed on risk and randomly assigned to either the Couple CARE for Parents (CCP), a couple relationship- and coparenting-focused education program (n = 125), or the Becoming a Parent Program (BAP), a mother-focused parenting program (n = 125). Couples completed assessments of their couple relationship during pregnancy, after intervention at 4 months postpartum, and at 16 and 28 months postpartum. Observed parenting and self-report parenting stress were assessed at 4 months postpartum, and parenting stress was assessed again at 16 and 28 months postpartum. Results: Risk was associated with greater relationship and parenting adjustment problems. Relative to BAP, CCP women decreased their negative communication and showed a trend to report less parenting stress irrespective of risk level. High-risk women receiving CCP reported higher relationship satisfaction, and were less intrusive in their parenting, than high-risk women receiving BAP. There were no effects of CCP on sensitive parenting and parenting intrusiveness for women. High-risk men in CCP showed a trend for higher relationship satisfaction than high-risk BAP men, but there were no effects of CCP for men on any parenting outcomes. Conclusions: CCP is a potentially useful intervention, but benefits are primarily for high-risk women. Keywords: couple relationship education, transition to parenthood, high risk, couples, intervention Couple relationship education (CRE) aimed at first-time parents (perinatal CRE) reduces the decline in relationship satisfaction observed across the transition to parenthood (Petch & Halford, 2008). However, the effect sizes are modest (Pinquart & Teubert, 2010), and perhaps only some couples benefit from CRE. Further- more, the effects of CRE on parenting are unknown. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of the Couple CARE for Parents (CCP) program (Halford, Petch, & Creedy, 2010) on the couple relationship and parenting and whether those effects were moder- ated by couples’ risk of poor adjustment. Challenges in the Transition to Parenthood The transition to parenthood is joyous but challenging for most couples (Gottman & Notarius, 2000) and is a high-risk time for development of couple relationship distress (Cowan & Cowan, 2000; Mitnick, Heyman, & Slep, 2009). Whereas parent and nonparent couples show a similar average decline in relationship satisfaction across the first decade of marriage (Mitnick et al., 2009), new parent couples show a sudden and marked decline after the birth of their first child (Doss, Rhoades, Stanley, & Markman, 2009). The sudden decline for new parents is likely due, at least in part, to the challenging demands of infant care and the 45+ hr per week of additional household tasks that accompany parenthood (Petch & Halford, 2008). Couples vary greatly in the extent to which they cope effectively with these challenges, with 40%–50% of couples showing a substantial decline in relationship satisfac- tion across the transition to parenthood (Doss et al., 2009). Wom- en’s relationship satisfaction is more affected by having a child than men’s, and is particularly low when parenting young children (Twenge, Campbell, & Foster, 2003). This article was published Online First June 25, 2012. Jemima F. Petch, Relationships Australia Queensland, Eight Miles Plains, Queensland, Australia; W. Kim Halford and Debra K. Creedy, Department of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queens- land, Australia; Jenny Gamble, Department of Psychology, Griffith Uni- versity, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. This research was supported by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Grant 326321 “A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Couple-Based Program for the Transition to Parenthood,” awarded to W. Kim Halford and Debra K. Creedy. W. Kim Halford is the first author of the Couple CARE progrom from which the Couple CARE for Parents program evaluated in the present article was developed. Couple CARE is published and distributed by Australian Academic Press, and he receives royalties from those sales. We thank Charles Farrugia, Vivian Jarrett, and Christopher Pepping for help with data collection and Joanne Fisher, Teresa Walsh, Corinne Mawn, Leesa Cunningham, Melinda Bentley, Jac- qui Hudson, Alison Brennan, Lianne Schwartz, and Di Tamariki for their work as the nurse-midwife relationship educators. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jemima F. Petch, Relationships Australia Queensland, Technology Office Park, 13/107 Miles Platting Road, Eight Miles Plains, QLD 4113, Australia. E-mail: j.petch@uq.edu.au Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology © 2012 American Psychological Association 2012, Vol. 80, No. 4, 662– 673 0022-006X/12/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0028781 662