Strengthening Unmarried Families: Could Enhancing Couple Relationships Also Improve Parenting?

Policy makers propose to promote healthy marriage among low-income unmarried couples by providing services to improve relationship skills. This article uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to explore whether enhancing parents’ relationship skills may have spillover effects on parent-child relationships. Drawing on findings that relationship quality is positively associated with parenting among married couples, the study examines whether a similar link holds for unmarried couples. A positive association is observed between parents’ relationship quality at the time of a baby’s birth and parenting about 1 year later for both mothers and fathers. Findings indicate that the association between relationship quality and parenting is not affected by marital status. Further, among unmarried couples, neither coresidence nor birth order affects the association.