Parental Perceptions of Individual and Dyadic Adjustment as Predictors of Observed Coparenting Cohesion: A Cross-National Study

Development of coparenting during the transition to parenthood: Integrating parents' representations with observed interactions

The transition to parenthood is a significant period of transformation and adjustment for all members of a new family, reshaping relational dynamics that often endure throughout the initial years of a child's life. This qualitative and longitudinal study aimed to explore coparenting representations held by both partners in a parental couple, along with observations of their family interactions, at three distinct points in time, with the aim to better understand the interaction between these representational and behavioral observations. In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 heterosexual, first-time parents in Santiago de Chile, during pregnancy and at two different times during the first year of their child's life. Family interactions were assessed using the Lausanne Trilogue Play task (LTP) on all occasions. Three main coparenting representation categories emerged: traditional, ambiguous, and co-responsible. On observation, approximately half of the couples showed cooperative coparenting interactions, while the other half had conflictual interactions. Couples generally followed stable trajectories over time. Cooperative couples demonstrated co-responsibility and open dialogue, while conflictual couples tended to follow traditional gender roles with tacit communication styles. This study highlights the importance of promoting co-responsibility and dialogue for fostering cooperative relational dynamics during the critical transition to parenthood.

An ultra-brief systemic intervention to address child mental health symptomatology

Drawing on decades of research in family systems, coparenting, and developmental science, we present a clinical approach to address unmet service needs in children's mental health. Specifically, we describe Lausanne Family Play - Brief Intervention (LFP-B) - a manualized family systems approach providing a caregiver-caregiver-child therapy (and sibling/s, when applicable). The LFP-B is ultra-brief, typically delivered in as few as three sessions (two assessment sessions followed by a video feedback session), with the aim of reducing children's mental health symptomatology by enhancing the coparenting relationship. We review literature on systemic family therapies and provide a rationale for including coparents and children in child mental health care. We then provide a rationale for using behavioral observations and video feedback in treatment, drawing on research in related family-based treatments (e.g., parent-child therapies). Finally, we provide an overview of the LFP-B manual and a case illustration.

Mothers' and fathers' perceptions of daily mealtime coparenting

The current study is the first to examine mothers' and fathers' perceptions of mealtime-specific daily coparenting support from their partner. We investigated relations between parents' reports of mealtime-specific coparenting support, global coparenting support, and discrepancies in parents' controlling feeding practices. One-hundred families (67 participating partners) of 3- to 5-year-old children participated. Parents reported daily on coparenting support and feeding practices for seven consecutive days. Preliminary analyses pooling across the week were conducted using correlations, t-tests, and analyses of variance. Although parents' perceptions of global coparenting and mealtime-specific coparenting support were correlated, both mothers and fathers perceived less coparenting support at mealtime than overall in their parenting role. When partners were present at the dinnertime meal, parents perceived greater mealtime coparenting support and mothers also perceived greater global coparenting support from fathers compared to when partners were not present. Using a subsample of families where both mothers and fathers were present at the dinner meal, we used dyadic multilevel models to analyze daily behaviors. These models showed significant daily variability in mothers' mealtime-specific coparenting support from fathers. Fathers' mealtime coparenting support from mothers did not vary day-to-day. On days when mothers perceived greater global coparenting support from their partners, mothers also perceived greater mealtime support. After accounting for the main effects of mothers' and fathers' pressure and restriction, on days when parents reported greater discrepancies between their pressuring feeding practices, mothers perceived less mealtime coparenting support than usual. Results suggest that mealtimes are a challenging context for interparental teamwork, particularly for mothers who receive inconsistent support day-to-day.