Co-Parenting Behaviors and Parenting Stress Amid China's Cultural Shifts in Parental Roles: Dual Perspectives From Mothers and Fathers

Abstract

With sociocultural changes in China, the traditional mother-dominated parenting model has shifted toward a more collaborative approach. However, the role of fathers in Chinese family parenting and the dyadic relationship between co-parenting behaviors and parenting stress remain insufficiently explored. This study explores the relationship between Chinese parents' co-parenting behaviors and their own and their partner's parenting stress, and further reveals the diversity of co-parenting behavior patterns in Chinese adolescent families and examines the variations in parenting stress across different co-parenting types. Participants included 1313 families in Chongqing, China (fathers: M_age = 39.78, mothers: M_age = 37.59, children: M_age = 10.08, 55.1% male). Parents completed two self-report questionnaires assessing their co-parenting behaviors and parenting stress. Results showed that both fathers' and mothers' positive/negative co-parenting behaviors were negatively/positively correlated with their parenting stress, respectively, with fathers' positive co-parenting behaviors also negatively correlating with mothers' parenting stress. Latent profile analysis identified four co-parenting behavior profiles: (a) cooperative, (b) cooperative-moderation, (c) compromising, and (d) coexisting. Parenting stress was lowest in cooperative families. Fathers in cooperative-moderation families reported significantly lower stress than those in compromising and coexisting families, with no significant differences between the latter two. For mothers, no significant differences in parenting stress were found between the cooperative and coexisting profiles or between the cooperative-moderation and compromising profiles. These findings extend the understanding of co-parenting dynamics within the changing Chinese family context and provide empirical support for family interventions aimed at reducing parenting stress.