Co-Parenting and Dysfunctional Parenting: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Literature underscored that parenting and co-parenting are both important for children's adjustment. Although the spillover hypothesis had explained associations between co-parenting and parenting, the relationship between co-parenting and dysfunctional parenting is a topic worthy of exploration. This systematic review aims to analyze the relationship between co-parenting and dysfunctional parenting to better understand the state of the art of literature. The two databases used were: The EBSCOhost Research Database to locate stud-ies in APA PsycArticles, APA PsycInfo, and MEDLINE and SCOPUS. One hundred fifty papers published between 2004 and 2022 were detected. After duplicate removal, screening, and eligibility assessment, 15 articles were selected. The reviewed articles showed associations between co-parenting and some forms of dysfunctional parenting, such as coercive or harsh parenting, psychological control, and child abuse potential. These studies emphasized that conflictual co-parenting relationships could spill over into parent-child relationships, increasing dysfunctional parenting. This review reinforced the im-portance of developing other empirical studies that would explore the effects of conflictual co-parenting on dysfunctional parenting.