Prenatal Volatility in Daily Couple Closeness Predicts Postnatal Coparenting

Presented by: Brandon McDaniel, Mark Feinberg

Prenatal couple relationship quality sets the tone for later coparenting. We utilized daily data on expectant parents' (203 couples) relationship closeness to examine whether the extent of within-person day-to-day volatility during pregnancy is related to coparenting quality at 6 months post-birth. Results suggest that considering daily volatility coupled with average relationship closeness, instead of only examining average closeness, added to our ability to predict the quality of postnatal coparenting. Those with stable low daily relationship closeness prenatally are most at risk for poorer postnatal coparenting. Unexpectedly, those mothers with high daily closeness but day-to-day volatility are also at risk.

Associations Between Coparenting and Infant-Parent Attachment Concordance

Presented by: Lauren Altenburger, Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, Claire Kamp Dush, Susan Johnson

Coparenting, or the ways in which partners relate to one another in their roles as parents, is the "executive subsystem" of the family and has been associated with infant-parent attachment security. Less is known about how coparenting, as a family-level process, contributes to infant-father and infant-mother attachment concordance. To advance the emerging literature on attachment concordance, we examined associations between reports of supportive and undermining coparenting and attachment concordance in 56 dual-earner families. Preliminary analyses revealed that supportive coparenting was associated with greater attachment concordance—even for families where children were insecurely attached to both parents. Implications are discussed.

Coparenting Perceptions Across the Transition to Second-time Parenthood

Presented by: Patty Kuo, Brenda Volling

In the transition to having a second child, fathers become more involved with the firstborn as mothers care for the infant. We found that fathers' perceptions of mothers' coparenting support declined and conflict increased across the transition to having a second child. Changes in fathers' perceptions of coparenting were uniquely predicted by fathers' gender role beliefs and family variables whereas changes in mothers' perceptions were only predicted by marital satisfaction. Fathers' beliefs may play a more influential role on his perceptions of the coparenting relationship as the family shifts from a triad to a system of two dyads (father-firstborn; mother-infant).

Violence, Boundary Ambiguity, & Coparenting Quality Among Divorcing Mothers

Presented by: Jennifer Hardesty, Kimberly Crossman, Lyndal Khaw, Marcela Raffaelli

A central task for divorcing parents is renegotiating boundaries that differentiate parental and spousal roles, with boundary ambiguity being linked to poor-quality coparenting relationships. This descriptive study examines boundary ambiguity and quality of coparenting relationships among divorcing mothers (N=190) with histories of coercive controlling violence, situational couple violence, and no violence. Contrary to prior research, boundary ambiguity was not associated with coparenting quality. Boundary ambiguity was highest for those who reported situational couple violence; coparenting quality was lowest for those who reported coercive controlling violence. Findings have implications for distinguishing among violence types and delineating early (vs. post-) divorce processes.