Mark E. Feinberg

The Internal Structure and Ecological Context of Coparenting: A Framework for Research and Intervention

Research on coparenting has grown over the past decade, supporting a view of coparenting as a central element of family life that influences parental adjustment, parenting, and child outcomes. This article introduces a multi-domain conception of coparenting that organizes existing research and paves the way for future research and intervention. This article advances a conceptualization of how coparenting domains influence parental adjustment, parenting, and child adjustment. An ecological model that outlines influences on coparenting relationships, as well as mediating and moderating pathways, is described. Areas of future research in the developmental course of coparenting relationships are noted.

Coparenting and the Transition to Parenthood: A Framework for Prevention

The way that parents work together in their roles as parents, the coparenting relationship, has been linked to parental adjustment, parenting, and child outcomes. The coparenting relationship offers a potentially modifiable, circumscribed risk factor that could be targeted in family-focused prevention. This paper briefly outlines an integrated and comprehensive view of coparenting, and suggests that the time around the birth of the first child is an opportune moment for coparenting intervention. To support the development of such prevention programs, an outline of the possible goals of coparenting intervention is presented with a description of the processes by which enhanced coparenting may have effects in each area. The paper discusses several issues involved in developing and disseminating effective coparenting interventions.

Establishing Family Foundations: Intervention Effects on Coparenting, Parent/Infant Well-Being, and Parent-Child Relations

This study investigated the ability of a theoretically driven, psychosocial prevention program implemented through childbirth education programs to enhance the coparental relationship, parental mental health, the parent-child relationship, and infant emotional and physiological regulation. A sample of 169 heterosexual, adult couples who were expecting their 1st child was randomized to intervention and control conditions. The intervention families participated in Family Foundations, a series of 8 classes, delivered before and after birth, that was designed as a universal prevention program (i.e., it was applicable to all couples, not just those at high risk). Intent-to-treat analyses indicated significant program effects on coparental support, maternal depression and anxiety, distress in the parent-child relationship, and several indicators of infant regulation. Intervention effects were not moderated by income, but greater positive impact of the program was found for lower educated parents and for families with a father who reported higher levels of insecure attachment in close relationships. These findings support the view that coparenting is a potentially malleable intervention target that may influence family relationships as well as parent and child well-being.

The role of risk and protective factors in substance use across adolescence.

PURPOSE To compare the relative influence of risk and protective factors across several domains on adolescent substance use in a large sample of youth. METHODS Cross-sectional survey data were collected from students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 in Pennsylvania (N = 91,778). Generalized linear mixed models were estimated for each grade level to examine associations among indices of three risk factors (individual, peer, and family) and three protective factors (family, school, and community) and both recent and lifetime substance use. RESULTS The risk factors were stronger predictors of substance use outcomes compared with the protective factors, regardless of grade level or substance use type. In particular, the individual and peer risk factors were strongly related to lifetime and recent use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. Among the protective factors, the strongest associations with substance use were found in the community domain. Several age-related differences in the associations were also found, suggesting that family and community factors were more salient among younger adolescents whereas peer and school factors were stronger among older adolescents. CONCLUSIONS These findings provide support for the social development model (SDM), which proposes that adolescent substance use is associated with factors across multiple spheres of influence. Age-related differences in these associations suggest that effective interventions to reduce adolescent substance use may need to emphasize different domains of risk and protective factors at different stages of adolescent development.

A Multi-Domain Self-Report Measure of Coparenting

Objectives . This study reports the psychometric properties of a multidomain measure of the coparenting relationship in dual-parent families. Method . A total of 152 couples participating in a transition to parenthood study completed the Coparenting Relationship Scale and additional measures during home visits at child age 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years. Results . Psychometric and construct validity assessments indicated the measure performed satisfactorily. The 35-item measure demonstrated good reliability and strong stability. Subscales measuring theoretically and empirically important aspects of coparenting (coparenting agreement, coparenting closeness, exposure of child to conflict, coparenting support, coparenting undermining, endorsement of partners parenting, and division of labor) demonstrated good reliability as well. A 14-item brief overall measure showed very strong associations with the overall measure. Relations of the full scale with a measure of social desirability were weak, and the full scale was positively associated with positive dimensions of the dyadic couple relationship (love, sex/romance, couple efficacy) and inversely associated with negative dimensions (conflict, ineffective arguing)—as expected. Conclusions . This initial examination of the Coparenting Relationship Scale suggests that it possesses good psychometric properties (reliability, stability, construct validity, and interrater agreement), can be flexibly administered in short and long forms, and is positioned to promote further conceptual and methodological progress in the study of coparenting.

Differential parenting as a within-family variable

Nonshared environmental influences have been found to be important for adolescent development. This study of 516 families investigated whether differential parental negativity or warmth is linked to adolescent adjustment apart from the effect of the level of parenting toward each child separately. After accounting for level of parental treatment to the adolescent, the authors found that differential parenting to the siblings contributed unique variance in adjustment. Significant interactions were found between level of parenting and differential parenting. In each case, differential parenting was more strongly linked to adjustment when the level of parenting was low in warmth or high in negativity. These results are indirect evidence that differential parenting can be considered a within-family influence on sibling adjustment and as direct evidence that nonshared environmental factors may systematically vary in strength between families.

Peers and the Emergence of Alcohol Use: Influence and Selection Processes in Adolescent Friendship Networks

This study addresses not only influence and selection of friends as sources of similarity in alcohol use, but also peer processes leading drinkers to be chosen as friends more often than non-drinkers, which increases the number of adolescents subject to their influence. Analyses apply a stochastic actor-based model to friendship networks assessed five times from 6th through 9th grades for 50 grade cohort networks in Iowa and Pennsylvania, which include 13,214 individuals. Results show definite influence and selection for similarity in alcohol use, as well as reciprocal influences between drinking and frequently being chosen as a friend. These findings suggest that adolescents view alcohol use as an attractive, high status activity and that friendships expose adolescents to opportunities for drinking.

The Third Rail of Family Systems: Sibling Relationships, Mental and Behavioral Health, and Preventive Intervention in Childhood and Adolescence.

Sibling relationships are an important context for development, but are often ignored in research and preventive interventions with youth and families. In childhood and adolescence, siblings spend considerable time together, and siblings’ characteristics and sibling dynamics substantially influence developmental trajectories and outcomes. This paper reviews research on sibling relationships in childhood and adolescence, focusing on sibling dynamics as part of the family system and sibling influences on adjustment problems, including internalizing and externalizing behaviors and substance use. We present a theoretical model that describes three key pathways of sibling influence: one that extends through siblings’ experiences with peers and school, and two that operate largely through family relationships. We then describe the few existing preventive interventions that target sibling relationships and discuss the potential utility of integrating siblings into child and family programs.

Sibling Differentiation: Sibling and Parent Relationship Trajectories in Adolescence

Studied here were the links between sibling differences in trajectories of change in the qualities of parent-child relationships and the qualities of sibling relationships across a 2-year period in adolescence. Participants were first- and second-born siblings (M age = 14.94 years for firstborns and M age = 12.46 years for secondborns) from 185 predominantly White, working and middle-class families. In home interviews, siblings reported on their dyadic family relationships. For reports of parent-child warmth but not parent-child conflict, results were consistent with sibling differentiation theory: Increasing differences between siblings over time in parent-child warmth were linked to trajectories of increasing warmth and decreasing conflict in the sibling relationship as reported by firstborns, and increasing warmth in the sibling relationship as reported by secondborns. The findings support the view that sibling differentiation may be a strategy for managing sibling conflict and rivalry.

Effects of family foundations on parents and children: 3.5 years after baseline.

This study investigated the ability of a psychosocial prevention program implemented through childbirth education programs to enhance the coparental and couple relationship, parental mental health, the parent-child relationship, and child outcomes. A sample of 169 heterosexual, adult couples expecting their first child was randomized to intervention and control conditions. The intervention families participated in Family Foundations, a series of eight classes delivered before and after birth, which was designed as a universal prevention program (i.e., applicable to all couples, not just those at high risk). Intent-to-treat analyses utilizing data collected from child age 6 months through 3 years indicated significant program effects on parental stress and self-efficacy, coparenting, harsh parenting, and childrens emotional adjustment among all families, and maternal depression among cohabiting couples. Among families of boys, program effects were found for child behavior problems and couple relationship quality. These results indicate that a universal prevention approach at the transition to parenthood focused on enhancing family relationships can have a significant and substantial positive impact on parent and child well-being.