Does Coparenting Quality Mediate the Link Between Postpartum Parenting Stress and Perceptions of Emotion Regulation During Parenting?

Abstract

There is substantial research linking parenting stress to reduced parental self-efficacy; however, the mechanisms under which this process unfolds are less clear. In a longitudinal, dyadic study of 144 parents and their children spanning postpartum to preschool age, we investigated whether dyadic coparenting quality (i.e., how partners work as a team to parent their children) explains the link between parenting stress and a key domain of parental self-efficacy—perceptions of emotion regulation during parenting. The study utilized self-report measures while implementing structural equation modeling (SEM) and actor–partner interdependence modeling (APIM) frameworks. Higher levels of postpartum parenting stress predicted parental perceptions of impaired emotion regulation during parenting interactions with preschoolers through poorer quality coparenting during toddlerhood; however, results suggest that this pathway might be most salient for fathers, and that other unmodeled mechanisms might explain this link for mothers. A partner pathway also emerged such that postpartum parenting stress in one partner undermined parental confidence in regulating emotions during parenting in the other partner by reducing coparenting quality. These findings suggest that coparenting quality may be an essential mechanism driving parental self-efficacy in the domain of emotion regulation, while undermining the importance of understanding what promotes or hinders parental self-efficacy, and how this can be implemented into pre-existing parenting interventions.