Search

This study examined financial distress, conflict management, and co-parenting support among 254 couples receiving child welfare services. Using an actor-partner interdependence model, this study tested the indirect association between couples' financial distress and their perceptions of co-parenting support through the use of positive conflict management strategies. Indirect actor effects were found for both mothers and fathers such that financial distress was associated with reports of less positive conflict management behaviors, and in turn less co-parenting support. When mothers reported that they and their partner engaged in less positive conflict management behaviors, they were more likely to be perceived as less supportive by their co-parent. Model results did not differ for married versus unmarried couples. For couples experiencing financial distress, findings imply that how effectively couples experiencing financial distress manage conflict in their relationship could potentially spillover and influence how well they support each other in co-parenting their children. Implications for practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foster caregivers provide care to some of our most vulnerable children and often experience challenges that can interfere with family functioning, including the interparental relationship. Recent efforts have been made to provide couple relationship education (CRE) to foster caregivers to support their interparental relationship and enhance the quality of the foster home. Guided by family systems theory and adult learning theory, and using an actor–partner interdependence model, the present quasi-experimental descriptive study -examined foster caregivers' parenting stress at baseline as a moderator of change in perceptions of coparenting support from pre-program (baseline) to post-program (4–6 weeks following CRE) to determine if higher levels of stress prior to CRE inhibits positive changes in coparenting support. While both men and women experience positive change in their perceptions of coparenting support, higher levels of parenting stress moderated positive change for men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]