Comparing targeted intervention modalities for high conflict co-parents: A quasi-experimental study

Abstract

High conflict co-parents engage in recurrent litigation that significantly strains the court system and exacerbates their conflict. Given barriers to their engagement in service delivery (e.g., level of conflict, transportation, child care), it is vital to evaluate targeted interventions and to examine different intervention modalities (e.g., online, hybrid). This study compared court involvement and rates of parental agreement among 178 high conflict cases that received a multi-component intervention, either in-person or in a hybrid version. Results demonstrated no significant differences between groups in the change in number of court negotiations, child-related issues, or court services from before to after-intervention completion or in the proportion of parenting cases who reached an agreement. Both versions demonstrated significant reductions in parents' court involvement from before to after-intervention completion. These findings suggest the need for future research to evaluate the comparative efficacy of hybrid programs and in-person programs for high conflict co-parents with greater methodological rigor in light of the current study's findings and limitations.