The number of evidence-based interventions to support couple and family adjustment is increasing, yet the uptake of interventions by couples, practitioners, and policymakers remains low.

In this project, (supported by a grant from Samfonden 2021-2028, researchers from the Unit for Couple- and Family Research and practitioners from Center for Family Development will develop and test a stepped care strategy for couple distress. The strategy is implemented initially in 4 municipalities and subsequentially scaled with the intention to close the gap between the need for and the uptake of relationship support for parenting couples. Interventions span across three steps from low to high intensity including health promotion (step 1), guided self-help (step 2), and face-to-face couple therapy (step 3).

More about the project (in Danish)

Head of Project:

Tea Trillingsgaard and Mattias Stølen Due

Other associates:

Hanne Nørr Fentz.

Nanna Fensman Lassen

Frederik Godt Hansen, Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark

Children exposed to high parental conflict often face behavioral, emotional, and academic challenges, while parents in conflicted relationships struggle with mental health and consistent parenting. Despite the prevalence of parental conflict (18% of cohabiting families), few receive relationship support. The OurRelationship (OurR) program, an 8-hour web-based self-help intervention, has shown promising results in reducing conflict and distress, with initial evidence of positive effects on children. However, further independent replication is needed, particularly comparing OurR to other self-help options like Bibliotherapy (BibT).

This study aims to test the efficacy of two self-help interventions, OurR and BibT, in a randomized trial involving 350 distressed parents. Participants will be randomized into three groups: OurR, BibT, or a waitlist control. Recruitment involves 8 different local municipalities. Data will be collected at four time points, focusing on outcomes like communication conflict between partners and children's externalizing symptoms.  This research is support by the Tryg Foundation.

Head of project:

Tea Trillingsgaard

Other associates:

Nanna Fensman Lassen

Katherine J.W. Baucom, HEART Lab, University of Utah

In Denmark, one in five couples experience relationship distress, and about half of all marriages end in divorce. Despite this, fewer than one in ten distressed couples seek any type of help, such as traditional face-to-face couple therapy or counseling. The OurRelationship program, developed by Professor Brian Doss and Andrew Christensen in the U.S., is an 8-hour, web-based, primarily self-help program designed for distressed couples. It has demonstrated highly positive, long-term results in two large trials with American couples (Doss et al., 2016, Doss et al 2020).

The project aims to replicate these initial U.S. findings through pilot and feasibility tests of the Danish version (translation and cultural adaption) of the program, OurRelationship.dk. Forty couples, recruited through paid online campaigns and advertisements, are randomized to either the online self-help program or a bibliotherapy course (using the book Pas på Parforholdet by psychologist Mattias Stølen Due and a reading guide). The study assesses the effects of these interventions on relationship functioning (e.g., relationship satisfaction, communication conflict, intimacy) and individual well-being (e.g., depressive symptoms, stress, quality of life) after program completion and at a 3-month follow-up.

www.OurRelationship.dk

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT04588012

Keywords: The OurRelationship program, online intervention, couple intervention, relationship satisfaction, conflict communication, self-help.

Head of project:

Tea Trillingsgaard

Other associates:

Hanne Nørr Fentz

Josephine Støjberg

Mattias Stølen Due

Brian Doss, Department of Psychology, University of Miami

Andrew Christensen, Department of Psychology, UCLA

Inequality is an increasing concern globally. Different types of inequality such as economic, social, political, or health are interrelated and often reinforce each other. However, we know little about the causes of and how to diminish inequality broadly speaking. In a new cross-disciplinary research center called “Platform for Inequality Research at Aarhus University” (PIREAU), researchers from departments across Aarhus BSS and Health will investigate inequality; in particular, the interplay between different types of inequalities. The research center consists of a core group of senior researchers supplemented by other tenured researchers as well as PhD students and postdocs.

Research projects at the center include an investigation on the causes of inequality in children’s health and economics conducted by researchers from Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, and Department of Economics and Business Economics. A major predictor of life course inequality in health and economics is divorce. The likelihood of divorce is disproportionately higher for couples with low socioeconomic status, and divorce is related to children’s health and economic outcomes such as lower educational attainment and higher rates of hospitalization. However, less is known about whether the negative effects on health and economics is caused by the divorce itself (change in family structure) or changes in the quality of family relationship prior to marital dissolution (change in family process). In a research project conducted by unit for Couple and Family Research, data from several couple-focused randomized controlled trials are linked with register-based data to test causal effects of changes in relationship quality on health and economic outcomes as well as examining potential heterogeneous effects (e.g., across social status/class) of social policies targeting the family.  

From the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Associate Professor Tea Trillingsgaard is affiliated with PIREAU.

Head of Project: 

Tea Trillingsgaard

Other associates:

Hanne Nørr Fentz

Frederik Godt Hansen, Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark

Miriam Wüst, Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen

Marianne Simonsen, Trygfonden’s Centre for Child Research, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus BSS.

The project is supported by a grant from Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) under the call “Strengthened research on vulnerable children and youth and poor well-being” and will extend findings from Lea Tangelev Greve’s PhD project on parent training through two main paths.

One path entails a complex research design combining a large community sample of Danes, with survey data from the Danish Center for Social Science Research (VIVE) and national register-based data. This will allow for analyses of long-term differences and changes in somatic and mental health service utilization for children with high levels of disruptive behaviors compared to children with normal levels of disruptive child behaviors (Study 1). It will also allow us to examine long-term differences and changes in school-related characteristics of children with and without behavior problems, such as school start age, utilization of special education services, school absence, etc. (Study 2). In both studies, we will additionally test a hypothesis of beneficial long-term secondary effects of participation in evidence-based parent training on the outcomes.

The second path of the project delves into the Danish Incredible Years implementation dataset to address a general lack of knowledge on the importance of child age, and of having one or both parents participate as predictors of differential change. This study represents a rare opportunity to examine patterns of symptom change from pre- to posttest in the light of child age across a large age-span from 2 to 12 years, as well as a uniquely high number of children in the sample with two participating parents (Study 3).

Keywords:

Health outcomes, school outcomes, long-term secondary outcomes, disruptive child behaviors, evidence-based parent training

Head of Project:

Tea Trillingsgaard

Other associates:

Lea Tangelev Greve

Mette Lausten, VIVE

Couple distress and relational conflict are prevalent issues that affect a large portion of the population, diminishing the quality of life and health for both adults and children. While couple therapy has been shown to effectively alleviate distress, access to it remains limited within public social services and healthcare systems. Many couples delay seeking help until their relationship difficulties have escalated to an irreversible stage. Several barriers contribute to this delay, including high costs, concerns about privacy, social stigma, and logistical difficulties. Stepped care models and self-help interventions offer promising alternatives to traditional couple therapy that may have potential for large-scale impact in the field of family services by reducing costs and lowering barriers to help seeking.

The project is a PhD project with independent research aims within the Self-help for Parenting Couples project. The project has three research aims: 1) Exploring participants’ experiences with an online guided self-help program (OurRelationship) and the limitations and opportunities associated with the program from the participants’ perspectives; 2) Examining acceptance versus decline of a self-help program invitation as a part of a stepped care model and possible predictors of acceptance; and 3) Exploring couples’ choices between distinct types of self-help interventions differing in intensity, and possible predictors of choice.

Findings will have implications for our theoretical models of stepped care and self-help for parenting couples in distress and can inform future efforts to prevent and treat couple distress and relational conflict.

Keywords: couple distress, relational conflict, stepped care, self-help, OurRelationship, low-level physical aggression, relationship commitment

Head of Project:

Nanna Fensman Lassen

Other associates:

Tea Trillingsgaard (supervisor)

Hanne Nørr Fentz (co-supervisor)

Katherine J.W. Baucom, HEART Lab, University of Utah

Klaus Nielsen

Inadequate parenting is a significant public health concern with potentially severe and long-term consequences for child development. While there are strong theoretical and policy arguments supporting efforts to improve the quality of the early family environment, little is known about the impact of universal parenting support during the transition to parenthood. This project is a randomized trial of the Family Startup Program, a universally offered group-based parenting support initiative, currently implemented on a large scale in Denmark.

The study includes 1700 pregnant women and their partners, the mother expecting her first child, in the municipality of Aarhus. Families were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (a) participation in the Family Startup Program, or (b) treatment as usual, which involves the standard publicly available pre- and postnatal care available to all families in both conditions. The Family Startup Program aims to prepare and empower new parents by enhancing their access to informal support networks and community resources.

Data are collected during pregnancy, when the child is 10 months, 19 months, and 4 years old. The analyses incorporate survey data, health visitors administrative data, and register-based data from Statistics Denmark.

The primary study outcome is measured by the Parenting Sense of Competence scale. Additional outcomes include individual functioning (i.e., depressive symptoms), parenting stress, the utility of primary care services, and the child’s socio-emotional development.

Associated research:

• Ready for the Transition to Parenthood? How Prenatal Indicators of Low Readiness Predict Relationship Satisfaction Over Time (Head: Hanne Nørr Fentz)
• Measuring Couple Responsive Attention (Head: Tea Trillingsgaard)

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02294968.

Keywords: parenting education, primary prevention, father-child relations, early intervention, child development, perinatal care, postnatal care, community health services

Head of project:

Marianne Simonsen (PI) & Tea Trillingsgaard

Other associates:

Hanne Nørr Fentz

Rikke Damkjær Maimburg

Anne Klode

Links to publications:

Trillingsgaard, T. L., Maimburg, R. D., & Simonsen, M. (2021). Group-based parent support during the transition to parenthood: Primary outcomes from a randomised controlled trial. Social science & medicine (1982), 287, 114340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114340

Trillingsgaard, T., Fentz, H. N., & Simonsen, M. (2024). Does group-based parent support during the transition to parenthood affect child socio-emotional problems and health care utilization? A randomized controlled trial. Social Science & Medicine, 347, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.11674

Effects of Early Father Involvement on the Family System

There is a growing variation in fathers’ involvement: while some families continue to exhibit a traditional division of responsibilities, more fathers undertake a directly involved parenting role. The project uses this variation as a window of opportunity for examining the family system effects of involved fatherhood. The literature consistently links father involvement to positive child outcomes; however, studies on shared caregiving and coparenting show that the effect of father involvement on the family’s subsystems is complex. When fatherhood practices shift these changes ripple through the family, altering relationships, roles, and dynamics between partners and children. A deeper understanding of these dynamics is needed. The aim of the project is to investigate the relationship between shared caregiving (parental leave and coparenting) and the development of father’s involvement and perceived parenting competence.

The project is a PhD project with independent research aims within the large-scale project The Family Startup Program. Participants are 1700 first time mothers and their partners who were surveyed during pregnancy and at 10, 19 and 52 months postpartum. The project will add empirical evidence to the theoretical connection between father involvement and shared parenting.

Findings will have implications for our theoretical models of the family system and can inform future efforts to support early phases of parenthood in families who are moving toward more involved fatherhood.

Keywords: father involvement, paternity leave, childcare, shared parenting, coparenting, gender roles, perceived parenting competence, family systems

Head of Project:

Anne Klode

Other associates:

Tea Trillingsgaard (supervisor)

Hanne Nørr Fentz (co-supervisor)

Marianne Simonsen, Trygfonden’s Centre for Child Research, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus BSS.