Coparenting quality: Contributions of child and parent characteristics

Abstract

Child gender, age, and temperament; parents' personality and education; and coparenting quality in the parents' families of origin were used to predict the quality of coparenting during family interactions (father, mother, and preschool child). Forty Midwestern, predominantly White families participated in the study. Families with college-educated mothers had high levels of supportive coparenting during family interactions regardless of the quality of coparenting in the mother's family of origin. In contrast, in families with high school-educated mothers, the more supportive the coparenting relationship in the mother's family of origin had been, the more supportive the couple was during the current family interaction. Couples with less educated and adjusted mothers were likely to be unsupportive during the family interaction.