Coparenting Mediates the Association Between Relationship Quality and Father Involvement

The study of adolescent childbearing is a major public policy concern, and father involvement is a particular focus. Previous research with married couples has found that coparenting may be a better predictor of father involvement than relationship quality. The current study examined 94 primiparous...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Youth & society 2017-07, Vol.49 (5), p.588-609
Main Authors: Varga, Colleen M., Gee, Christina B., Rivera, Lyzaida, Reyes, Claudia X.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
African Americans
Child Rearing
Childbearing
Childbirth & labor
Cohabitation
Coparenting
Family roles
Father-child relations
Fathers
Hispanic Americans
Interpersonal relations
Married couples
Mediation
Minority Group Students
Mothers
Multiple Regression Analysis
Parent Child Relationship
Parent Participation
Parent Responsibility
Parent-child relations
Parenting Styles
Parents
Parents & parenting
Participation
Pregnancy
Pregnant Students
Public policy
Statistical Analysis
Structural equation modeling
Structural Equation Models
Teenage pregnancy
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Summary:The study of adolescent childbearing is a major public policy concern, and father involvement is a particular focus. Previous research with married couples has found that coparenting may be a better predictor of father involvement than relationship quality. The current study examined 94 primiparous African American and Latino parents to determine whether coparenting expectations during pregnancy better predict concurrent father involvement secondary to a mediation effect. Results were mixed; simple mediation was supported, but structural equation modeling (SEM) results suggested a better fitting model for mothers than for fathers. For mothers, relationship quality predicted coparenting. For fathers, relationship quality and coparenting predicted father involvement, but relationship quality did not predict coparenting. This examination suggests that both relationship quality and coparenting are important for father involvement in unmarried adolescents but to differing degrees for mothers and fathers. Pregnancy may be an important potential intervention point for increasing subsequent father involvement.
ISSN:0044-118X
1552-8499
DOI:10.1177/0044118X14548529