Pilot Study of a Program to Increase Mothers’ Understanding of Dads

The present study evaluated the effects of mothers' participation in an 8‐week coparenting intervention program, Understanding Dad^?, on mothers' awareness and attitudes regarding how their relationships with fathers influence paternal involvement with children, knowledge of healthy pro‐relationship skills, and relationship self‐efficacy. Thirty‐four mothers were recruited from four sites to participate in a study that used a pretest/posttest one‐group design. Over the course of this 8‐week program, mothers demonstrated moderate to large gains in each of the outcome measures, after controlling for mothers' educational level. Moreover, there was one significant within‐subjects interaction effect for time × location. That is, mothers made significantly greater gains in pro‐relationship knowledge in one of the intervention sites. Implications for future research are discussed.