Links among coparenting behaviors, parenting stress, and children’s behaviors using the new German coparenting inventory

Abstract

We applied a new German coparenting questionnaire to families with preschoolers. Fathers and mothers from 270 families participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the expected three-factor structure with the factors cooperation, conflict, and triangulation. Correlations with other coparenting scales support the validity of the new measure. After controlling for sociodemographic variables, parental reports on coparenting conflict and cooperation predicted nursery teachers’ ratings of oppositional-aggressive behavior of the child. In addition, cooperation between parents was associated with lower levels of parenting stress if parents endorsed a liberal attitude toward parental roles that value paternal involvement in child-rearing. In contrast, higher cooperation was related to higher maternal parenting stress if mothers favored traditional parenting roles.