Elective co-parenting with someone already known versus someone met online: implications for parent and child psychological functioning

Research question

What are the psychological outcomes for parents and children in elective co-parenting families, and do these differ based on whether or not the co-parents met online?

Design

This cross-sectional study provides novel descriptive quantitative data on the wellbeing of parents and children within 23 elective co-parenting families, defined as two or more parents deciding to have and raise children together outside of a romantic partnership or conjugal couple relationship. Standardized questionnaires were administered to assess parent and child psychological adjustment. Bayesian independent t-tests were conducted to compare the parent and child outcomes in 13 families who met online via a connection website with 10 families who were co-parenting with someone known to them previously.

Results

Elective co-parent scores for depression, anxiety, parenting stress, resilience, perceived social support and couple relationship satisfaction were within the normal range. Children's average competencies, and behavioural and emotional problem scores were low risk when compared with population norms. Bayes factors suggest no support for the alternative hypothesis that there were differences in parent or child wellbeing between families with co-parents who met via connection sites compared with families with co-parents who already knew each other.

Conclusions

Parents and children in elective co-parenting families are functioning well regardless of how they were formed, but individuals may require tailored professional advice or support for this growing new route to parenthood. Future longitudinal work with larger samples is required to replicate these findings, and explore children's perspectives of their families, as well as the support needs of co-parents and their children throughout their parenting journey.