The Online Program for Expecting Couples

Family Foundations is a proven approach helping pregnant couples and new parents create the strongest family possible for their child. Building a strong team approach to positive parenting reduces stress and conflict and promotes your child’s lifelong health and happiness. Do it together, online, and keep your account for one year.

Not in a relationship, but raising a child with someone’s support? The two of you can do the program together too.

Enroll Now

Developed by Mark Feinberg, Ph.D. at Penn State · Proven effective in NIH-funded research trials · One year of access

A baby is incredibly joyful.
It also puts your relationship to the test.

Although parenthood will present many challenges and be stressful at times for you and your relationship, Family Foundations will provide you with the tools to manage those challenges, thrive as a family, and spend more time enjoying the ride.

“This is the brutal reality about children – they’re such powerful stressors that small perforations in relationships can turn into deep fault lines.” – New York Times Magazine

The program was built around one idea: the cooperative, supportive relationship between parents is the foundation of the family. Strong parenting teamwork helps everyone in the family: fathers, mothers and children.

What you get

9 Steps, in order.

Each Step opens after the one before it, and finished Steps stay open so you can go back to them.

Interactive lessons.

Narrators present the information, and video stories show other families.

Exercises for the 2 of you.

Built-in pauses to practice skills with your partner or briefly talk through a question.

Short, practical homework.

Each Step has a practice work section, and brief assignments between the Steps keep the conversation going and team parenting skills developing.

Before and after the birth.

The prenatal Steps let you learn and practice tools before your baby arrives. The postnatal Steps sharpen and extend your skills as you put them into practice. (If your baby is already born, you can do all the Steps after the birth.)

Your progress is saved.

Pick up where you stopped. Both of you use one account, and you have it for one year.

How it works

1. Enroll online.

One enrollment covers both parents. Your account stays active for one year.

2. Do a Step together.

Watch, pause, and try the exercises with your partner. The next Step opens when you finish the one before.

3. Take it at your pace.

We suggest one Step every few days to a week, so the material has time to live in your relationship and family. Your progress is saved automatically.

This is the self-study, online version of the Family Foundations classes, tested and proven to benefit children, parents, and family relationships in randomized trials.

Backed by evidence

The effectiveness of Family Foundations has been demonstrated in a series of rigorous research studies.

Results from four randomized trials, funded by NIH, have shown that families who enroll in Family Foundations experience less stress and conflict, more warmth and cohesion, and more positive long-term outcomes for children than families randomly assigned to a control group.

In the longest studies of Family Foundations, compared to randomly-assigned control families, Family Foundations families showed:

BETTER

  • Parenting teamwork
  • Parenting sensitivity & warmth
  • Infant self-regulation, sleep
  • Toddler social competence
  • Child academic competence
  • Child emotional health

LESS

  • Pre-term birth, duration of hospital stay
  • Maternal health problems
  • Parental stress
  • Postpartum depression in mothers
  • Conflict between parents
  • Harsh parenting

Independent expert panels in the U.S. and U.K. have given the Family Foundations program and research high marks for integrity, effectiveness, and scientific validity. Research results have been published in leading peer-reviewed, scientific journals. The program has been translated and used around the world.

Developed by Mark Feinberg, Ph.D., a prevention scientist at Penn State University.

See the published research →

What parents say

“We found this course so helpful, I feel like it saved our marriage. Thank you!”

“The Family Foundations program changed my life and my partner’s life because it gave us the skills to support each other and our child.”

“We have really enjoyed it! It has been our little ‘thing’ we do together at night after we put our son to bed. We loved hearing from real couples and their experiences.”

Read more parent reviews →

One enrollment for you and your partner

$25 per couple · One year of access · Online, at your own pace

Includes everything in “What you get” above: all 9 Steps, the exercises and practice work, and saved progress.

Enroll Now

Questions parents ask

The original Family Foundations program was a series of 8 or 9 in-person classes for first-time, expecting couples. After testing in randomized trials, we made available the self-study, online version that you can access on this website. (This online program has also been tested and shown to be effective.) In this online version, just like the classes, the experience is interactive and varied: Narrators present some information, video vignettes show other families’ experience of teamwork, online exercises are presented, and you are asked to pause and engage in skill-building exercises with your partner or briefly discuss a question. We suggest you do a Step every few days to a week, to give the material time to “live” in your relationship and family before moving to the next Step. There are also brief and practical “homework” assignments between Steps.

All families are different, but Family Foundations was designed for a wide range of families, and there is strong evidence to show that Family Foundations works for families with diverse backgrounds, resources, and values. It has been translated and implemented around the world, in countries on five continents.

Benefits of the program have been assessed in different randomized trials at different ages. In the longest-running trials, benefits were assessed several times between the time children were 6 months old and 10 years old. Positive results were found at each point in time.

Unlike most programs, books, or other materials available for you to use at home, the Family Foundations program has been thoroughly researched and proven to actually benefit children and families. Independent registries of programs have given the program high marks for its research and outcomes.

Yes. The program is split into two parts: the prenatal part gives you an opportunity to learn about and practice tools and strategies before your baby arrives, and the postnatal part sharpens and extends your skills as you put them into practice together. Couples starting after the birth begin with the prenatal Steps and can do all the Steps after the birth.

Yes, if you have just had a baby, Family Foundations is very relevant. If you have had a child or children for a few years now, some of the material about becoming a parent may not be new to you. Still, you may come to understand your experience in a new way. And more importantly, the skills and tools in Family Foundations about building parenting teamwork and a strong family can be helpful at any point.

See all FAQs →

Start your parenting teamwork today

You are about to experience one of the most exciting and rewarding periods of life. Do it as a team.

$25 per couple · one year of access

Enroll Now