Bidirectional Influences Between Dimensions of Coparenting and Adolescent Adjustment

Abstract

Research on coparenting documents that mothers' and fathers' coordination and mutual support in their parenting roles is linked to their offspring's adjustment in childhood, but we know much less about the coparenting of adolescents. Taking a family systems perspective, this study assessed two dimensions of coparenting, parents' shared decision-making and joint involvement in activities with their adolescents, and examined bidirectional associations between these coparenting dimensions and boys' and girls' risky behaviors and depressive symptoms across four time points (6 years) in adolescence. Participants were 201 mothers, fathers, and adolescents (M = 11.83, SD = .55 years of age at Time 1; 51 % female). Parents of sons shared more decisions, on average, than parents of daughters. On average, shared decision-making followed an inverted U shaped pattern of change, and parents' joint involvement in their adolescents' activities declined. Cross-lagged findings revealed that risky behavior predicted less shared decision-making, and shared decision-making protected against increased risky behavior for boys. For girls and boys, parents' joint involvement predicted fewer risky behaviors, and lower levels of risky behavior predicted higher levels of joint involvement. In contrast, boys' and girls' depressive symptoms predicted less joint involvement. The discussion centers on the nature and correlates of coparenting during adolescence, including the role of child effects, and directions for future research on coparenting during this developmental period.

Predicting Sibling Relationship Quality from Family Conflict: A Longitudinal Study from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood

“…Given that adolescence is often marked by a greater emphasis placed on peers as social support systems [73][74][75], one limitation is that data on peer relationships during early adolescence were not available as a predictor of sibling relationship quality in young adulthood. However, some research suggests that parents play a stronger role in socializing their adolescent children than peers [76].…”

Adaptación en la infancia: influencia del estilo parental y del estado de ánimo

“…Un nivel bajo de adaptación se relaciona con sentimientos de tristeza (Riina y Mchale, 2014), problemas de autoestima o autoimagen, inseguridad en las relaciones personales, sín-tomas ansiosos (Naz y Kausar, 2014), bajo rendimiento escolar (Hérnandez-Guanir, 2009), expectativas en la relación con los amigos (MacEvoy, Papadakis, Fedigan y Ash, 2016), entre otros. La adaptación personal, social, escolar y familiar, se encuentran interrelacionadas (Hernández-Guanir, 2009).…”

“…La inadaptación infantil es importante no sólo por sus correlatos psicosociales, sino también porque puede funcionar como estado previo a la psicopatología (Hernán-dez-Guanir, 2009;Naz y Kausar, 2014;Riina y Mchale, 2014). Dadas las evidencias de su relación con variables familiares y emocionales (Arshad y Naz, 2014;Camisasca, Miragoli y Di Blasio, 2016), es destacable la escasa presencia de estudios específicos sobre esta temá-tica, especialmente desde la perspectiva de los niños.…”

“…A poor degree of adjustment is related with feelings of sadness (Riina & Mchale, 2014), problems of selfesteem or self-image, a lack of security in personal relationships, symptoms of anxiety (Naz & Kausar, 2014) and poor academic performance (Hérnandez-Guanir, 2009), among other things. Personal, social, school and family adjustment is interrelated (Hernández-Guanir, 2009).…”

“…Finally, the possible contribution of the child's emotional state to his/her adjustment appears to have been ignored. Childhood maladjustment is of importance, not only because of its psychosocial correlates but also because it could function as a pre-psychopathological state (Hernández-Guanir, 2009;Naz & Kausar, 2014;Riina & Mchale, 2014).…”