A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of a Brief Conflict Reappraisal Intervention for Community Couples with Young Children

Purpose: The Love Together, Parent Together (L2P2) program is a brief, online couple’s intervention designed to prevent relationship deterioration by targeting maladaptive psychological processes. Methods: The current study used a parallel-group randomized controlled trial of L2P2 to examine its feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness. One-hundred forty couples with young children (<6 years old) were randomly assigned to L2P2 or a control group. In three writing sessions over nine weeks, all couples completed fact-based summaries about recent conflicts; the L2P2 group also responded to three writing prompts eliciting conflict reappraisal. Participants completed baseline, post-intervention, and 1- and 3-month follow-up assessments. Results: Goals related to feasibility and acceptability were met. In addition, the control group, but not the L2P2 group, showed deteriorating relationship quality from baseline to post-intervention. Conclusions: L2P2 shows promise as a brief intervention to attenuate declines in relationship quality in couples.