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Coparenting and parenting pathways from the couple relationship to children's behavior problems
Alison Parkes1, Michael Green1, Kirstin Mitchell1
1MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow.
Insights
Positive couple support reduces children's long-term externalizing behaviors. This protective effect is largely mediated by improved coparenting and individual parenting skills in early childhood.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Family Studies
- Child Psychology
Background:
- Extensive research links couple conflict to child externalizing behaviors.
- Protective effects of positive couple relationships and underlying mechanisms are understudied.
- The role of coparenting in mediating couple relationship quality and child behavior is unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between couple supportiveness in infancy and later externalizing behavior problems.
- To explore mediating pathways involving coparenting and individual parenting (mother/father) skills.
- To examine the differential impact of positive versus negative parenting pathways.
Main Methods:
- Observational study using data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) and US Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFS).
- Analysis of associations between couple supportiveness (infancy) and child externalizing problems (middle childhood).
- Mediation analyses explored pathways through coparenting and individual parenting at ages 3-5 years.
Main Results:
- Couple supportiveness was significantly associated with reduced externalizing problems 8-10 years later in both cohorts.
- A substantial portion of this effect was mediated by coparenting and parenting quality at ages 3-5 years.
- Pathways via negative parenting were stronger than positive parenting; maternal parenting pathways were stronger than paternal.
Conclusions:
- Couple supportiveness offers long-term protection against child externalizing behaviors.
- Coparenting and individual parenting skills are key mechanisms linking couple support to child outcomes.
- Interventions promoting parental support in coparenting and individual parenting may mitigate long-term child behavior issues.
Abstract:
Although an extensive literature has linked couple conflict with the development of children's externalizing behavior problems, longer term protective effects of positive dimensions of couple relationships on children's externalizing behavior remain understudied, particularly in relation to underlying mechanisms. Supportiveness in the dyadic couple relationship may enhance mothers' and fathers' individual parenting skills and protect against children's behavior problems, but the contribution of coparenting (couples' support for one another's individual parenting) remains unclear. This observational study investigated associations between couple supportiveness in children's infancy and middle childhood externalizing problems, exploring pathways involving coparenting and/or mothers' and fathers' individual parenting using data from the U.K. Millennium Cohort Study (MCS; N = 5,779) and the U.S. Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFS; N = 2,069). Couple supportiveness was associated with reduced externalizing problems 8 to 10 years later (standardized betas: MCS = -.13, FFS = -.11, both ps < .001). Much of this effect (60% MCS, 55% FFS) was attributable to coparenting and parenting when children were aged 3 to 5 years. Pathways from couple supportiveness involving negative parenting were stronger than those via positive parenting, pathways via mothers' parenting were stronger than those via fathers' parenting, and there were pathways via coparenting alone (without affecting parenting). Pathways involving coparenting were similar in magnitude (MCS), or larger (FFS), than those involving parenting alone. Consistent findings across different population samples suggest that helping parents to support one another in coparenting and to develop their individual parenting skills may lessen the longer term impact of couple relationship problems during early childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).