Grant: Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Chronic socioeconomic stress uniquely experienced by low-income and racially diverse families has cascading effects to parent mental health and weakens couple relationships, ultimately leading to poor child mental health. Given that most mental health difficulties originate in childhood, intervention supports for parenting couples with young children are essential. However, most effective community-based couple interventions have poor reach and engagement amongst low-income and racially diverse families. Brief interventions are one approach to reduce these barriers by increasing access, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness. Promisingly, Love Together Parent Together (L2P2), a brief couple intervention developed to enhance relationship quality and parent and child mental health, has shown preliminary effectiveness. Therefore, the proposed study is to develop and evaluate an adaptation of L2P2 based on cultural considerations, within the Black Creek community in the Greater Toronto Area given the large population of low-income and racially diverse families. Through partnering with Black Creek Community Health Centre, we will adapt L2P2 following a four-step process: (1) gathering information, (2) adapting L2P2, (3) evaluating the adapted program, and (4) making final changes based on evaluation results. Metrics will be used to assess feasibility and acceptability. We will also examine change in couple relationship quality and parent and child mental health. Community collaborations can empower community members and ensure that interventions are meaningful, effective, and genuinely meet community needs. Improving relationships among parents is essential given the difference in stable marriages and father involvement with children related to racial and economic circumstances. Finally, brief interventions have the potential to reduce racial inequalities in mental health care access and quality, especially for a population disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.