Parent emotion regulation and parenting self-efficacy: The moderating role of coparenting

Successful parenting involves high parenting self-efficacy (PSE)—one’s belief in their ability to parent successfully—and strong parent emotion regulation (ER)—the capacity to evaluate and modify one’s emotional reactions. Additionally, a cooperative, well-coordinated coparenting relationship is an important source of support for parents. This study examined the associations of parent ER with PSE and considered the moderating role of coparenting. Ninety-nine different-sex couples with school-age children participated. Parents completed survey measures of ER, PSE, and coparenting, as well as an observed coparenting task with their seven-year-old children. Actor-Partner Interdependence Models were used to examine relations between parent ER and PSE moderated by coparenting quality. Among mothers, perceived coparenting moderated the associations of both cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression with PSE, with the PSE of mothers perceiving lower-quality coparenting relationships benefitting the most from cognitive reappraisal and the PSE of mothers perceiving higher-quality coparenting relationships suffering the most from expressive suppression. Among fathers, observed coparenting moderated the relation between ER strategy and PSE. Expressive suppression was negatively associated with fathers’ PSE when observed coparenting quality was lower, while cognitive reappraisal was positively associated with fathers’ PSE when coparenting quality was higher. The present study contributes to the growing body of research on the associations of parent ER with parental functioning.