Positive Parenting and Parental Conflict: Contributions to Resilient Coparenting During Divorce

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12349
• Author: Ellie M. McCann,Sharon Powell,Veronica Deenanath,Sarah E. Cronin,Emily H. Becher,Hyunjun Kim,Jenifer K. McGuire
• Published date: 01 February 2019
• Date: 01 February 2019

E H. B, H K, S E. C, V D,

J K. MG, E M. MC  S P University of Minnesota

Positive Parenting and Parental Conict:

Contributions to Resilient Coparenting

During Divorce

Objective: To examine the inuence of positive

parenting and parental conict on the coparent-

ing alliance.

Background: Research indicates that child

and family outcomes after divorce are affected

by the quality of the coparenting relationship

between parents, with many divorce education

programs focusing on coparenting as a core

programmatic component. Less is known about

how positive parenting and parental conict

affect the coparenting alliance.

Method: This study collected online survey data

from a convenience sample of divorcing par-

ents (N=430). Participantscompleted measures

of parenting, parental conict, and coparent-

ing alliance. Regression and simple slope anal-

yses were performed with parental conict and

positive parenting as predictors of coparenting

alliance.

Results: Positive parenting and parenting con-

ict both predicted the coparenting alliance.

Low levels of conict predicted high levels

of coparenting when positive parenting was

high and moderate; however, conict did

not predict alliance when positive parenting

was low.

Extension Center for Family Development, University of

Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108 (bech0079@umn.edu).

Key Words: Conict, coparenting, divorce,parenting.

Conclusion: Parents who engaged in mod-

erate to high positive parenting had the

anticipated negative relationship between

conict and coparenting alliance, but this did

not hold true for parents who engaged in below

average positive parenting, suggesting that both

parenting and conict play a role in a resilient

coparenting alliance.

Implications.: Divorcing parents’ parenting

skills may be important to consider when

deciding on prevention and intervention efforts

aimed at supporting their coparenting alliance.

Therefore, divorce education programs may

benet from incorporating content related

to positive parenting and parents with weaker

parenting practices may need different types

of intervention.

Parental separation and divorce is considered an

adverse childhood experience and contributes

to increased risk for negative physical and

behavioral health outcomes in adulthood (Dube,

Felitti, Dong, Giles, & Anda, 2003). It is also

a relatively common phenomenon: Among

children in the United States born to married

parents, roughly 27% will experience parental

divorce before reaching adulthood (Heuveline,

Timberlake, & Furstenberg, 2003). Although

children experience adversity during and after a

parental divorce, the negative effects tend to be

modest, and many children do well following

parental divorce (Kelly, 2012).

150 Family Relations 68 (February 2019): 150–164

DOI:10.1111/fare.12349