Importance of Self‐Esteem for the Parental Couple: Testing for Actor and Partner Effects

• Published date: 01 October 2021
• Author: Nahema El Ghaziri,Joëlle Darwiche,Jean‐Philippe Antonietti,Ulrich Orth
• Date: 01 October 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12532

N E G , J D ,  J-P A University of

Lausanne

U O University of Bern

Importance of Self-Esteem for the Parental Couple:

Testing for Actor and Partner Effects

Objective: This study investigated the actor and

partner effects of self-esteem on the quality of

the parental couple relationships: the roman-

tic relationship and the coparental relationship.

The mediating role of romantic quality also was

considered.

Background: Previous ndings suggest that

self-esteem affects the quality of the romantic

relationship. Yet few studies have focused on

self-esteem in the parental couple or explored

self-esteem related to the coparental relation-

ship, both of which play a signicant role in the

nature of the family unit.

Method: Using data from two independent sam-

ples (including 2,549 couples), actor–partner

interdependence models were tested to analyze

the effects of self-esteem on both relationships

of the parental couple.

Results: Parents with high self-esteem reported

higher romantic quality, as did their partner.

Self-esteem also showed actor and partner

effects on negative coparenting. Accordingly,

parents with high self-esteem reported fewer

conicts about the child and fewer undermin-

ing behaviors. In contrast, the link between

self-esteem and positive coparenting received

little support. However, when mothers had high

Université de Lausanne, Institut de psychologie, Bâtiment

Geopolis, CH-1015 Lausanne

(nahema.elghaziri@gmail.com).

KeyWords: coparenting, couple, marital, and romanticrela-

tionships, family strengths.

self-esteem, they engaged more frequently in

positive coparental behaviors, such as includ-

ing the father. Finally, romantic relationship

quality mediated the actor and partner effects

of self-esteem on negative coparenting.

Conclusion: Having high self-esteem appears

to be a couple resourcewith benecial effects for

both parents.

Implications: Improving parents’ self-esteem

could be an important gateway for enhancing

the functioning of families with romantic and

coparental difculties.

Individuals with high self-esteem appear to be

advantaged when it comes to building and main-

taining enriching relationships. The longitudinal

meta-analysis by Cameron and Granger (2019)

established the prospective effect of self-esteem

on one’s interpersonal life. In the family system,

research has focused on the role of self-esteem

for the romantic relationship. Findings high-

light the dyadic effects of self-esteem and

the importance of considering both partners.

Accordingly, a meta-analysis by Erol and

Orth (2017) indicated that self-esteem has both

actor and partner effects, meaning that it is

linked to the individual’s romantic satisfaction

(actor effect) but also to the individual’s part-

ner’s satisfaction (partner effect). Furthermore,

the existing longitudinal research support the

fact that self-esteem predicts the development

of the romantic satisfaction (Erol & Orth, 2017).

Family Relations 70 (October 2021): 1055–1072 1055

DOI:10.1111/fare.12532

1056 Family Relations

Although extensive research has been carried

out on self-esteem and the romantic relationship,

its effects on the parental couple have been over-

looked. First, research focusing on parents as

couples is scarce and has led to mixed results

(Culp & Beach, 1998; Don & Mickelson, 2014;

El Ghaziri et al., 2019; Frosch et al., 1998). Sec-

ond, the parental couple is characterized by the

fact that the partners are simultaneously engaged

in two distinct relationships: The romantic rela-

tionship, only including the parents, and the

coparental parental one, which refers to the way

parents share the caring and raising of their

children (McHale, 2007). Again, strikingly few

studies have analyzed the effect of self-esteem

on the coparental relationship.

Parenthood entails fundamental transforma-

tions for the couple, with enduring changes.

Accordingly, the variables inuencing the

romantic relationship of parents and non-parents

might differ. Also, the parental couple embod-

ies the axis around which the other family

relationships emerge and develop. As we will

see, the literature highlights its predominant

role in the well-being of each family member.

Accordingly, enhancing the knowledge on this

unique system could help rene therapeutic

interventions and have benecial repercussions

on the whole family. In the present study, we

examine the effects of parents’ self-esteem on

romantic satisfaction and adaptive coparenting.

The actor and partner effects of self-esteem on

the romantic and coparental relationships are

analyzed as well as the paths linking those three

variables, enabling an enriched perspective on

the parental couple system.

In the following sections, we start by den-

ing the parental couple and its different facets.

We then address the importance of self-esteem

for social bonds and more specically for the

romantic and coparental relationship. Finally,we

highlight the value of considering the parental

couple system as a whole because of the poten-

tial spillover effects between the romantic and

coparental relationships.

T P C

Having a child fundamentally changes the

couple system as it involves multiple transfor-

mations for the individual and for the couple.

This transition implies new responsibilities, a

new social role, and the development of a new

relationship: the coparental one. Accordingly,

couples who are parents seem to differ from

couples who are not parents. In line with this

perspective, the transition to parenthood has

been linked to normative changes in mothers’

self-esteem (van Scheppingen et al., 2018).

Furthermore, literature has repeatedly shown

that parents report a less satisfying romantic

relationship with a steeper decline of satisfaction

across time (e.g., Holmes et al., 2013; Keizer &

Schenk, 2012).

As already noted, the parental couple system

is characterized by two distinct relationships,

the romantic and the coparental. Whereas the

romantic relationship only involves the parents

and concerns aspects such as love, sex, or

nances (Minuchin, 1974), the coparental rela-

tionship includes the parents and the children.

It refers to the ability of the partners to work

as a team in their parental role (McHale, 2007).

In these roles, do parents support, undermine,

or compete with each other while raising their

children? Furthermore, are parents able to coor-

dinate their various parenting tasks? Noticeably,

positive and negative coparenting are two dis-

tinct variables, meaning that one parent may be

simultaneously supportive and intrusive to the

partner (Kuo et al., 2017).

Empirical ndings support the theoretical rel-

evance of distinguishing between the romantic

and coparental relationship. Indeed, previous lit-

erature reports that distress at the romantic level

is not synonymous with distress at the coparental

level: A couple can have disagreements at one

level but may be well-functioning at the other

level (McHale et al., 2000). Furthermore, con-

struct validity analyses conrm that romantic

and coparental quality ought to be considered

separately (Van Egeren, 2004).

Both the romantic and coparental relation-

ships are uniquely related to the well-being of

parents and children. For example, the romantic

quality was shown to affectthe trajectory of part-

ners’ life happiness and depressive symptoms

(Kamp Dush et al., 2008). It also was asso-

ciated signicantly with parenting stress and

mothers’ parenting efcacy (Kersh et al., 2006).

Furthermore, romantic satisfaction appears to

be linked to children’s internalizing and exter-

nalizing problems (Knopp et al., 2016; Murphy

et al., 2017). As for coparental quality, it was

shown to be a source of psychological safety

for parents (Schoppe-Sullivan et al., 2016); and

compared with the romantic quality, coparental

quality appears to be a more proximal predictor