Parents' perceptions of their spouses' parenting and infant temperament as predictors of parenting and coparenting

Cooperative coparenting and the associations with adolescent behavioral problems and delinquency in unmarried families

INTRODUCTION

Coparenting in unmarried families is a protective factor for positive adolescent adjustment. Although the relations between coparenting and adolescent outcomes have been investigated, it remains unclear whether the specific patterns of maternal and paternal coparenting are associated with adolescent behavioral outcomes.

METHODS

The present study includs a longitudinal cohort of 1143 triads of unmarried parents and their adolescents to examine the associations between different patterns of coparenting and adolescent behavioral problems and delinquency. The data were drawn from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study in the United States. Our study used six waves of publicly available data at children's birth, ages 1, 3, 5, 9, and 15.

RESULTS

The latent profile analyses identified four coparenting profiles of maternal and paternal coparenting perceived by the other unmarried parent. Comparing average levels of coparenting between mothers and fathers, the profiles were entitled Low Mom-Low Dad, High Mom-Medium Dad, Low Mom-Medium Dad, and High Mom-High Dad. Parents characteristics, such as cohabitation and marital status, predicted the likelihood of being in cooperative coparenting profiles. Furthermore, all the identified coparenting profiles predicted adolescent externalizing behavioral problems; only the high mom cooperative coparenting profiles predicted adolescent internalizing behavioral problems; none of the coparenting profiles predicted adolescent delinquency.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study adds empirical evidence for coparenting research by revealing that coparenting patterns vary in unmarried families and that cooperative coparenting benefits child behavioral outcomes. The findings encourage introducing different coparenting training programs targeting unmarried parents' diverse needs, thus promoting positive adolescent adjustment.

The indirect impact of infant negative emotionality on interparental conflict via perceptions of coparenting challenges: What prenatal resources mitigate this risk?

Research clearly demonstrates that conflictual interparental relationship dynamics can create a family context that contributes to child emotional insecurity and psychopathology. Significantly less research has examined familial factors that contribute to maladaptive conflict between parents. Scholars have alluded to the disruptive impacts of parenting a child with certain temperamental characteristics (e.g., negative emotionality). Yet, there is a lack of empirical research examining if and how child temperament contributes to later interparental conflict. Using an established multi-informant, multi-method sample of 150 families first assessed during pregnancy, and again when the child was 1, 2, and 3.5 years of age, the present study aimed to test an integrated conceptual model examining whether infants' negative emotionality assessed at age 1 predicts interparental conflict at age 3.5, as mediated through destructive coparenting dynamics in toddlerhood, and identifying prenatal protective factors mitigating this maladaptive pathway. Findings suggest that greater infant negative emotionality predicts worse interparental conflict management during preschool age by undermining the mother's (but not the father's) report of coparenting relationship quality during toddlerhood. However, these results were significant only to the extent that parents were lacking certain prenatal regulatory resources (i.e., low paternal self-compassion; less secure relationship between parents). Importantly, results point to the need for intervention and prevention efforts during pregnancy that might disrupt the deleterious impacts of parenting a child who is more reactive and prone to expressing negative emotions.

When not teaming up puts parents at risk: Coparenting and parental burnout in dual-parent heterosexual families in Switzerland

Parental burnout refers to loss of energy and pleasure in the parental role. It is predictive of psychopathological outcomes in parents and dysfunctional parenting behaviors. Support of parental duties is central to alleviation of parental burden and prevention of burnout. Coparenting is the concept related to interparental mutual support in rearing a child. However, the links between coparenting and parental burnout have yet to be assessed. We thus aimed in this study to assess which dimensions of coparenting are linked with parental burnout. A total of 306 participants from the French-speaking part of Switzerland (120 fathers, 186 mothers) completed online questionnaires about parental burnout, their coparental relationship, and sociodemographic characteristics. We performed hierarchical regressions, entering sociodemographic characteristics in a first block and coparenting dimensions in a second block. Results showed that (i) a higher number of children and having younger children are linked to higher burnout; (ii) coparenting exposure to conflict is related to higher burnout, whereas endorsement of the partner's parenting is related to lower burnout; and (iii) no interaction effect occurs between sociodemographic characteristics and coparenting variables. Coparenting thus significantly contributes to the occurrence of burnout syndrome. Working on the coparental relationship preventively in parental educational programs or at a relational systemic level in therapy may help prevent burnout. Treating one parent only may not be sufficient to alleviate burnout, as negative coparenting could counter the effect of individual therapy.

Couple, Parent, and Infant Characteristics and Perceptions of Conflictual Coparenting over the Transition to Parenthood

This study examined trajectories of new parents' perceptions of conflictual coparenting and predictors thereof. Partners in 182 dual-earner different-gender U.S. couples reported their prenatal marital conflict and individual characteristics (conflictual coparenting in the family of origin, parenting self-efficacy expectations, and parenting role beliefs) during the third trimester of pregnancy, their infant's characteristics (negative affectivity and gender) at 3 months postpartum, and their perceptions of undermining coparenting and exposure to conflict at 3, 6, and 9 months postpartum. Results of latent growth curve models indicated that new parents' perceptions of undermining, but not exposure to conflict, increased similarly from 3 to 9 months. Fathers perceived higher initial undermining than mothers, but there were no gender differences in exposure to conflict. For mothers, greater prenatal marital conflict and greater infant negative affectivity were associated with elevated levels of perceived undermining and exposure to conflict. For fathers, more egalitarian role beliefs were associated with lower undermining and less exposure to conflict, whereas greater prenatal marital conflict, higher conflictual coparenting in the family of origin, and greater infant negative affectivity were associated with greater exposure to conflict. Fathers also perceived greater undermining and exposure to conflict when mothers reported higher prenatal marital conflict, whereas mothers' greater conflictual coparenting in the family of origin was related to fathers' lower exposure to conflict. These findings provide valuable information to strengthen programs focused on improving coparenting.

DDAA and Maternal Reflective Functions

In this study, we propose to examine two types of Parent Training (PT) under DDAA —behavioral and reflective types of PT. The central idea of our work is that the development of parenting educational skills cannot ignore the development of reflective and regulatory functions, which promote pre-mentalization, social cognition, and empathic skills. Because of the lack of studies on the efficacy of behavioral PT addressed to the parents of subjects with DDAA, this work took place. This study included 90 families whose children were diagnosed with the disorder of dysregulated anger and aggression (DDAA) according to criteria of CD 0–5 (2016). The sample included pre-school children aged between 2 and 3 years old (age range 2–3 years), who were equally divided into two groups based on the type of PT administered to the parents or caregivers. Our results indicate that the PT intervention, which is focused on the improvement of parental reflexive functions, helps in obtaining greater results even in the reduction of the externalizing behavioral symptoms. Additionally, results show that the intervention of PT with a behavioral matrix does not improve parental reflexive functions even if it guarantees a slight reduction of children’s behavioral problems.