Coparenting Conflict and Academic Readiness in Children of Teen Mothers: Effortful Control as a Mediator

• Date: 01 June 2018
• Author: Adriana J. Umaña‐Taylor,Katharine H. Zeiders,Kimberly A. Updegraff,Sara Douglass Bayless,Laudan B. Jahromi
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12290
• Published date: 01 June 2018

Coparenting Conflict and Academic Readiness in

Children of Teen Mothers: Effortful Control as a

Mediator

LAUDAN B. JAHROMI*

KATHARINE H. ZEIDERS

†

KIMBERLY A. UPDEGRAFF

‡

ADRIANA J. UMAN

˜A-TAYLOR

‡

SARA DOUGLASS BAYLESS

§

Children’s exposure to coparenting conflict has important implications for their develop-

mental functioning, yet limited work has focused on such processes in families with diverse

structures or ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds. This longitudinal study exam-

ined the processes by which Mexican-origin adolescent mothers’ coparenting conflict with

their 3-year-old children’s grandmothers and biological fathers (N=133 families) were

linked to children’s academic and social skills at 5 years of age, and whether children’s

effortful control at 4 years of age mediated the link between coparenting conflict and

indices of children’s academic readiness. Findings revealed that adolescent mothers’ copa r-

enting conflict with their child’s biological father was linked to indices of children’s aca-

demic and social school readiness through children’s effortful control among girls, but not

boys, whereas conflict with grandmothers was directly linked to boys’ and girls’ social func-

tioning 2 years later. Findings offer information about different mechanisms by which

multiple coparenting units in families of adolescent mothers are related to their children’s

outcomes, and this work has important implications for practitioners working with

families of adolescent mothers.

Keywords: Aca demic Readiness; Adolescent Mothers; Coparenting Conflict; Effortful

Control; Self-Regulation

Fam Proc 57:462–476, 2018

The coparenting relationship has important consequences for many dimensions of chil-

dren’s development, including their social and academic skills and psychological adjust-

ment (e.g., Cabrera, Scott, Fagan, Steward-Streng, & Chien, 2012; Cabrera, Shannon, & La

Taillad, 2009; Frosch, Mangelsdorf, & McHale, 2000; Teubert & Pinquart, 2010).

*Department of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY.

†

Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.

‡

T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.

§

OMNI Institute, Denver, CO.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Laudan B. Jahromi, Department of

Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University 525 W. 120th Street, New York, NY

10027. E-mail: jahromi@tc.columbia.edu.

This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Develop-

ment (R01HD061376; PI: Uman

˜a-Taylor), the Department of Health and Human Services (APRPA006001;

PI: Uman

˜a-Taylor), and the Cowden Fund to the School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State

University. We thank the families who participated in this study, and the undergraduate research assis-

tants, the graduate research assistants, and staff of the Supporting MAMI project for their contributions

to the larger study.

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Family Process, Vol. 57, No. 2, 2018 ©2017 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12290